The Weapon Thief
by chaosshotgun
Summary: Percy Jackson is just some trouble student from Yancy Academy. Or so he thought. When he and his friends Thalia and Nico discover their true heritage, they are thrust into a journey with a daughter of Athena, a son of Boreas and a satyr. Will they be able to stop a three-way war between their fathers in time?
1. My Pre-Algebra Teacher Bites the Dust

**Hello! After my failed first attempt at a PJATO fanfic, I'm back with an AU take on the series! Forgive me if you don't like this, as I'm writing simply for fun and to distract myself from self-harm. :(**

**If anyone recognizes me, yes, I'm the kid who wrote Bloodkin and am currently working on Bloodlines for the Inheritance Cycle, and this is written as a what-if, just like my other current project!**

**So without further ado, read and enjoy! **

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**The Weapon Thief**

**Chapter 1: My Pre-Algebra Teacher Bites the Dust**

Being a half-blood is not as cool as it seems.

Stop reading now if you're doing it because you're starting to suspect that you're one. Trust me, you're better off believing whatever lie your mom or dad cooked up about your other parent. Try to live a normal life. Go with your hobbies, whatever.

Being a half-blood is horrendously dangerous. It almost got me and my friend killed in painful, nasty ways. You're better off without any of that.

If you're reading this because it looks like a great piece of fiction, then you're a lucky normal kid. Thalia would probably whack me on the head for saying this, but we envy you. So much. If you think that these pages are starting to look familiar, or if you feel something stirring inside, please stop. Like, now. You might be one of us and if you realize that you a re, then they will sense it too and come running after you.

This is my last warning.

I'm Percy Jackson, twelve years old. I was a boarding student in Yancy Academy until a few months ago. Don't be fooled by the preppy name, it's an private school for troubled kids here in New York. If you're wondering, yeah, you could say that I'm a pretty troubled kid. It's just not the way that you might be thinking.

We could pretty much start anywhere in my miserable life and go on until it gets worse, which we could trace back to that field trip that our sixth-grade class took in Manhattan last May. I don't know why anyone would think that it would be a good idea to load twenty-eight mental-case kids in a yellow school bus even if we had two teachers to watch over us.

You might think that visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff would be boring and torturous. I have to admit that most Yancy field trips were, but I was hopeful about this one. After all, our Latin Teacher, Mr. Brunner, was leading and he was pretty cool.

He's this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair who was really, really cool. You might not think that he is, with his thinning brown hair, scruffy beared and that frayed tweed jacket that smelled like coffee. He knew these cool stories and funny jokes and let us play some games in class. He even had a collection of real Roman armor and weapons, so his class was always interesting. Other teachers easily put me to sleep but he didn't.

I kept my fingers crossed, hoping the trip wouldn't cause a lot of trouble even if bad stuff kept happening to me during field trips. Seriously, you won't believe half of them. I blew up our school bus during fifth-grade, when I accidentally fired a Revolutionary War cannon from the Saratoga battlefield. The year before that, we went to this behind-the-scenes tour of the awesome Marine World shark pool. I didn't really mean it when I hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and sent the entire class to an unplanned – and very unwanted – swim. Hate to say it but it happened to me all the time. Believe me, I didn't mean to do any of that and this time, I was determined not to mess up.

I even ignored it when the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, Nancy Bobofit, began to pelt my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of that nasty peanut butter and ketchup sandwich that she loved. I even did my best to make sure that my friends Thalia and Nico did nothing to provoke her.

I have to admit that Grover was an easy target. He was very thin and cried when he got frustrated. I'm not sure about it but I think he got held back several times because even if he was only a sixth-grader, he had a lot of acne and already had some sort of wispy beard on his chin. The worst is that he was crippled and was even excused from PE forever since he had this muscular leg disease thingy. It made him walk funny and it felt like every step hurt him – except if it was enchilada day and he could run to the cafeteria to get a lot.

This made him way different from our other friends, Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo. Thalia was this tall girl who always kept her black hair short and choppy. You might think it's weird but it really looked good with her black jacket, black clothes, ripped jeans and combat boots. She also had these button pins of rock bands that were really cool. This getup, coupled with her intimidating electric-blue eyes, made every bully steer clear of her. That, and the fact that her mom was a former starlet with this big, poofy hairdo. We argued a lot but she was pretty cool.

Nico was a little on the short and skinny side like Grover, but he was this cheerful kid who acted like he couldn't see or hear the bullies and was addicted to this trading card and figure game called Mythomagic. He had shaggy black hair that kept falling over his wide, chocolate- brown eyes that were a little crazy at times. He wore brown aviator jackets over a skull-printed shirt and grubby jeans most of the time. He loved comic books and we would talk about them all day with Grover since we were roommates.

Anyway, Nancy Bobofit knew that my friends and I couldn't do anything to stop her even if the sandwich bits stuck in Grover's curly brown hair because Thalia, Nico and I were already on probation. Yep, the principal already threatened us with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing or mildly entertaining happened again – which seemed to keep happening around the three of us, even harmless Nico.

"I'm going to kill her," I muttered.

"It's okay," Grover told me. He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "I love peanut butter!"

"No, it's not okay," Thalia growled in irritation from behind us. She had a deadly look in her eye and I could almost imagine lightning bolts shooting out of them. Pretty weird, but not really.

"That's it," I said, starting to get up. Grover pulled me back to my seat, though.

"Percy, you're already on probation," he told me. "You'll all get blamed if anything happens."

Nico picked off wads of food from Grover's hair from behind, as he was sitting with Thalia. He looked really scary when he glared at Nancy. "I don't like it either but we have to behave," he muttered.

Seriously though, it would probably have been better if we ganged up on Nancy Bobofit in the bus and suffered from in-school suspension. The trouble we got ourselves into was seriously way worse, but don't tell Nico that. He thinks it's really cool.

Mr. Brunner led the tour by riding up front in his wheelchair. He guided us through big galleries that made really weird echoes. Thalia's eyes widened at the statues and pottery in the glass cases. Thalia and Nico talked in hushed voices about how this stuff survived for thousands of years. Seriously, it was mind-blowing.

We gathered around some stone column that had a sphinx on top. It was at least thirteen feet tall and kind of creepy, but Nico's eyes widened and he started listening really intently as Mr. Brunner told us about this stele, or grave marker, for a girl who was around our age. I almost expected him to take notes when the carvings on the sides were discussed, but I knew Nico better than that. He was dyslexic, like Thalia and me.

I seriously did my best to listen, really, because it was all interesting, but the kids around me kept talking and I couldn't tell them to shut up. Our math teacher from hell, Mrs. Dodds, would give me an evil eye. She was a mean, little old lady from Georgia who was around 50 years old. That didn't stop her from wearing a black leader jacket. Hey, she looked mean enough to ride a Harley out of your locker to scare you to death! She came to Yancy halfway through our year since our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. Gee, I wonder why?

She adored Nancy Bobofit, outright refused to acknowledge Nico's existence and figured that Thalia and I were devil spawn. Whenever she pointed that crooked finger at us and said, "Now, honey," really sweet, it meant that we had after-school detention for a month. She once even made us erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight.

Since they were my roommates, I told Nico and Grover about it. Nico said that she probably wasn't human and Grover had that serious look when he said, "You're right, you know?"

Mr. Brunner was still talking about Greek funeral art when Nancy Bobofit snickered and said something about the naked guy on the stele. I was so irritated that I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" louder than I meant to.

Everyone laughed except my friends. "Now you're in trouble," muttered Thalia. I wanted to hit her.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have something to say?"

I flushed in horror and glared at Thalia. "No, sir."

"Well, then," he said, pointing to one of the pictures on the stele. "Could you tell us about this picture?"

Lucky me, I actually recognized the carving. "Er, that's Kronos eating his babies, right?" I asked.

"Yes." Still not satisfied. "He did this because…"

"Kronos was the king god and…"

"Titan," Thalia hissed.

"Titan," I repeated, giving her another death glare. "He didn't trust his kids, who were gods, so he, uhhhh, ate them? His wife hid the baby Zeus though, so she gave Kronos a rock instead. He's probably not very bright if he thought the rock was a baby. When Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, to barf up his siblings and so there was an epic battle between the gods and the Titans. So the gods won."

Some kids were snickering behind me. Nancy Bobofit turned to a friend and mumbled, "As if we're going to need this in real life. Do you think our job applications would include something like 'Tell me why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"To paraphrase Miss Bobofit's question, does this matter in real life, Mr. di Angelo?" Mr. Brunner asked, glancing at Nico.

"Ha! Busted," Thalia muttered with an evil grin.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed. Her face glowed redder than her hair. Boo-hoo. Mr. Brunner had radar ears and could always hear it when she said something wrong. He's cool like that.

"Hey Nics, you okay?" Grover asked.

Nico went white as sheet. He hated being called on in class, hated speaking in front of all these mean kids. He looked around and shrugged. "I don't know, sir," he said quietly.

Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "I see. How about you, Miss Grace? No idea? Mr. Jackson?" His face fell even more as we shrugged. "Well, then. Half credit to Mr. Jackson. Zeus fed his father a mixture of mustard and wine so that Kronos would disgorge his five children. As immortal gods, they grew up and lived undigested within the Titan Lord's stomach. The displeased gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his scythe and scattered these pieces in Tartarus, which is the darkest part of the Underworld. Finishing on that happy note, we should eat our lunch now. Mrs. Dodds, if you could please lead us back outside?"

The girls held their stomachs while the guys began to push each other to act like doofuses as we drifted off. My group were supposed to follow them too when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson, Mr. di Angelo, Miss Grace…" Whoops.

"Go on, G-man," Nico said, pushing grover forward. "Get us a good spot, will you?"

"You must learn the answer to my question – all three of you," Mr. Brunner said, giving us this look with his intense brown eyes that seemed over a thousand years old.

"Er, about the Titans?" I asked.

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it." Mr. Brunner watched me exchange glances with Nico and Thalia. "Everything you learn from me is very important so you have to treat is as such. Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo, I expect nothing but the best."

I should have been angry because he pushed me so hard. Okay, tournament days were pretty cool, especially when he was dressed in some Roman armore, screaming, "What ho!" and challenged us with his sword to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who lived, who their mother was and what god was worshipped. But this was pushing it too far. He expected me and my friends to be as good us – or even better – than everybody else. You're looking ath the three kids who have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. Even attentive Nico barely scraped anything higher than a C in his entire life. It's pretty difficult for us to learn – or even correctly spell – all those names and facts.

Thalia shuffled uncomfortably while I mumbled something about trying harder. Nico said some apologies under his breath. Mr. Brunner told us to follow our classmates and have our lunch outside while looking at the stele sadly – as if he was at the funeral.

We found the rest of the class at the front steps of the museum, watching the foot traffic in Fifth Avenue. A massive storm was brewing overhead, with these big, angry black clouds. Nico and Thalia went on and on about globel warming or something, since the weather all around the state of New York was pretty crazy since Christmas. Snowstorms, floods, wildfires caused by lightning strikes all happened randomly so a hurricane wouldn't come as a surprise.

The weird thing is that nobody else noticed, though my friends and I kept exchanging uncomfortable looks. The guys kept pelting pigeons with their crackers while Nancy Bobofit was trying to pick a lady's purse. Naturally, Mrs. Dodds can't see anything wrong with her sweet angel.

My group sat at the edge of the fountain to distance oruselves from them, hoping that nobody would notice that we're from that school for loser freaks – freaks who won't make it anywhere else.

"Triple detention, I guess?" Grover said.

"Of course not!" Thalia grunted.

Nico dug into his banana. "Brunner won't do that to us. He's awesome that way."

I shrugged. "Wish he would lay off us sometimes, though. I mean, yeah, Nico tries so hard but we're no geniuses."

Nobody spoke for a while, and when I thought he was going to give some sort of philosophical comment or try to make me feel better, Grover asked for my apple. I shrugged and gave it to him. I didn't have an appetite anyway.

None of us spoke while we watched the cabs on Fifth Avenue. I thought of my mom's apartment, which was a bit uptown from here. We haven't seen each other since Christmas and I wanted to jump into a taxi and head home right then and there. Sure, she'd be glad to see me, but she'll be disappointed too. She'll probably send me right back to Yancy after reminding me to try even harder. It didn't even matter to her that this was my sixth school in the same number of years and probably would get kicked out again with my friends. I just can't stand the sad look in her eyes.

I thought of Thalia's mom, who lived in one of those classier apartments being paid for by her dad though they never married. Thalia only saw her dad once but said that he was pretty okay if a little strict and quite the drama king. I've seen Miss Grace's name on the news a few times, talking about a supposedly good comeback that ended up in a flop. That didn't count in her drinking issues yet. I know that she never got along well with Thalia.

My eyes moved to Nico, who was trying to pile up his Mythomagic cards on the pavement with an absentminded smile. I knew that his parents were dead and was being sent to school because of some lawyer. I idly wondered about what he was going to come home too, and felt a little bad for him. If I didn't have that jerk of a stepfather, I would have invited him to stay for a few days over the summer with Grover and Thalia.

At the base of the handicapped ramp, Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair and began to eat some celery while reading some paperback novel. He had this red umbrella at the back of his chair that made it look like some motorized café table.

"I really have to complete my cards this summer," Nico said happily. "I've been working on them for three years!"

"What are you doing during summer?" Thalia asked as she began unwrapping her sandwich.

Nico made a face. "I'll be staying with some really, really distant relatives who are kind of weird," he said. "One of them is a lawyer."

At that very moment, Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of us, followed by her hideous thugs. She must have gotten tired of stealing from tourists, so she dumped her half-eaten sandwich in Grover's lap. "Oops." She smiled, showing her crooked teeth. In the pale sunlight, her freckles looked so orange, like liquid Cheetos.

Seriously, I wanted to stay cool. The school counselor told me a million times that counting to ten could help me control my temper. Thalia let out a shout and pushed Nancy, and it seemed like there was a small spark of electricity as the big bully winced. It broked when Nico cussed and the ground seemed to move, tipping Nancy forward. I was so angry that my mind blacked out, and a wave roared in my ears. The next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting in the fountain, screaming, "They pushed me!" Nico, Thalia and I were on our feet with mutinous looks on our faces.

As if by magic, Mrs. Dodds appeared next to us.

The other kids were whispering: "Did you see – "

" – she got zapped – "

" – the ground shifted – "

" – the water grabbed her – "

Nico gave me a look of trouble. "What just happened?" he asked. "I was so angry that I blacked out."

"I don't know either, man," Thalia grunted. "We're in trouble though. Big trouble."

Mrs. Dodds assured herself that poor Nancy was okay and that she would get her angel a new shirt at the museum gift shop. Then she turned to us, eyes glazing over Nico. "Honeys," she said, triumph in her eyes. It felt like she was waiting for us to do something like this all semester.

"I know, I know," I groaned. "A month erasing workbooks again."

Thalia elbowed me, an annoyed look in her eyes. "Stupid."

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said with an evil smile.

"B-but it was me!" yelped Grover. He gave Nico a scary warning look. "I pushed Nancy." Grover was scared to death of Mrs. Dodds. Why was he trying to cover for us?

"I don't think so, honey. You will stay here."

Grover gave us a desperate look. Thalia and I could barely reassure him before running after Mrs. Dodds. We glared at Nancy, who was smirking. I gave her my best threatening stare before turning back to Mrs. Dodds – but she wasn't there anymore. She stood way at the very top of the steps, at the museum entrance. She glared at us with impatient eyes.

"How'd she get her so fast?" Thalia whispered.

I shrugged. My brain falls asleep or something a lot, and before I know it I've missed something already – as if a puzzle piece fell from the universe, leaving me at the empty space. Counselors kept telling me that it's a part of ADHD, since my brain misinterpreted things. Wasn't so sure, though.

Whatever.

I followed Thalia, and we went after Mrs. Dodds. Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover, who was talking to Nico. His eyes cut between us and Mr. Brunner, as if he wanted to tell Mr. Brunner but he was too absorbed in his novel.

Mrs. Dodds disappeared again. She was standing at the very end of the entrance hall, and I guessed that she would make us buy a new shirt for Nancy since the gift shop was pretty near. We followed her deeper into the place and when we caught up to her, we were standing in the Greek and Roman section again.

The gallery was empty. Thalia stood tensely beside me, her electric-blue eyes flashing brighter. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed, right in front of this marble frieze depicting Greek gods. She was making some weird growling noise in her throat.

I nervously stood closer to Thalia. Being alone with a teacher – even with one of my best friends – was weird, especially since it was with Mrs. Dodds – who was glaring at the frieze mruderously. "You've both been giving us problems, dears. Did you thin kthat we would really let you get away with it?" She tugged at her jacket cuffs, giving us an evil look.

"She's a teacher," I muttered. "She won't really help us."

"Not so sure about that." Thalia raised her voice. "We'll try harder, ma'am."

I felt thunder shake the building, and felt my body tremble. "Did you take us for fools, Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace?" Mrs. Dodds growled. "It was only a matter of time before we found out about you. Confess if you want to suffer less pain."

"What's she talking about?" Thalia whispered.

I shrugged. "I took my Tom Sawyer essay from the Internet. Hope they didn't find out and take away my grade – or make me read it."

"Well?" Mrs. Dodds demanded.

"Ma'am, we don't…" Thalia began.

"Time's up." The weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals, fingers stretching to turn into talons. Uh-oh. Her jacket melted into these big, leathery wings.

"She's not human," I said.

"What gave you the idea?" Thalia snapped, eyes fixed on the shriveled hag with bath wings, claws, and a mouth filled with fangs. "She's going to slice us to bits."

"Percy! Thals!" Nico yelled, running towards us breathlessly. His eyes widened upon seeing Mrs. Dodds, and he dropped his Mythomagic cards which he always meticulously stacked. "What is that?!"

Mr. Brunner wheeled right into the gallery, pen in hand. "What ho!" he yelled, tossing his pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at us, so Thalia and I split up. I was a little slow, and felt talons slashing the air right next to my ear. I held out my hand, as if by instinct, and snatched the flying ballpoint pen – which wasn't a pen anymore. It was Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, the one he used every tournament day.

"Percy?" yelled Nico. "Look out!"

Mr. Dodds spun towards me, the evil look in her eyes becoming murderous. "Die, honey!" She flew straight towards me, since I was nearer.

My knees and hands were shaking badly as terror began coursing through my entire body. I did the only obvious thing, which was to swing the sword. The blade was metal, and it hit her shoulder, passing clean through her body. What was she, water? With a loud hiss and a dying screech, she turned into yellow powder as if I vaporized her. I shuddered as the smell of sulfur filled the air with a chill of evil.

"What was that?" Thalia asked, eyes wide.

I was standing in the middle of a pile of sand, ballpoint pen in hand. Thalia was standing right next to a pale-faced and terrified Nico. Mr. Brunner wasn't there – only the three of us.

"Did we eat something with magic mushrooms?" Nico asked tentatively. "I mean… did we imagine all of that? I once heard that some people could go into these weird trances and share visions that they imagined and…"

"No." Thalia firmly put a hand on his shoulder. "I think it did happen. We should go back outside."

Right outside, it was raining really hard. Grover was still by the fountain with a museum tarp on his head. He was shivering and gave us a scared look. Nancy Bobofit was nearby, wet with her fountain swim and her shirt singed from the random static electricity. She was grumbling to her hideous friends and glared at us. "Hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your sorry butts."

"Uh, who?" I asked.

"Our teacher, duh!"

"We have no teacher named Mrs. Kerr," Nico said tentatively, as if afraid that Nancy went crazy.

Thalia crossed her arms. "Just what are you talking about, Bobofit?"

Nancy rolled her eyes and turned away, so we asked Grover instead.

He paused and wouldn't look at me as he said, "Who?" Why was he messing with us?"

"Man, that's not funny," I said as a loud peal of thunder boomed right above us. "This is very serious."

Mr. Brunner was still sitting under his red umbrella, as if he never moved at all. I approached him, ignoring Nico and Thalia's warnings. He looked up at me, looking quite distracted. "That would be my pen. Thank you for returning it, Mr. Jackson. Please bring your own next time."

I didn't even realize that I was still holding the pen-sword-thing when I handed it right back to him. I hesitated, then asked me about Mrs. Dodds.

"Who?" Mr. Brunner frowned blankly at me. When I repeated it, he gave me a mildly concerned look. "As far as I remember, there's no Mrs. Dodds in Yancy Academy nor is there any on this trip. Are you feeling fine?"

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**Well, here's the first chapter, and it's still pretty similar to the original book. FOR NOW! Mwahaha!**

**Liked it? Don't hesitate to leave a review and make my day! :)**


	2. We Watch Old Ladies Knit Deadly Socks

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING.**

**Shoutout to the 48 people who read this so far and to the amazing ones who reviewed, followed and favorite-d! :) Happy holidays!**

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**Chapter 2: We Watch Old Ladies Knit Deadly Socks**

Weird things are common in my life and judging from Thalia and Nico's stories, it's the norm for them too. But these weird things often happened quickly and didn't last as long as this 24/7 hallucination that we've gotten ourselves into. I had no idea if it was a prank, some joke or something worse, but it felt like everyone at school was playing a mean trick on us. Everyone seriously acted like Mrs. Kerr, this perky blond lady who joined us at the end of the field trip whom I've never met before that, was our pre-algebra teacher since before Christmas, which is weird because that was Mrs. Dodd's job until she went psycho-hag on us.

I tried to spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody every now and then, even if Thalia simply got irritated when nobody claimed to remember her. I just wanted to see if I could trip them up, but they all stared at me like I was the one that went psycho. It made me almost want to believe them, except that Thalia and Nico could remember her existing too.

I knew that something was going on, and it had something to do with Mrs. Dodds in the museum. Grover couldn't fool us, after all. I keep mentioning the name Dodds to him, and he would hesitate before he could claim that she didn't exist. Did I mention that he's a really bad liar?

With school and friends, I didn't get to think about it much during the days, my sleep kept being disrupted by visions of Mrs. Dodds' monstrous form. This, along with the freak weather that kept up, ruined my mood every day. There was this one time when Nico freaked out because of that thunderstorm that blew out the windows in our dorm room. He hates storms. It was followed by the biggest tornado ever spotted in Hudson Valley, and it touched down only fifty miles from Yancy. We even started to study some current events in social studies class, including the number of small planes taken down by storms in the Atlantic that year.

This left me horribly cranky and irritable, so my grades started slipping from D's to F's. I got into a lot of fights with Nancy Bobofit and company, pulling Nico and Thalia along with me because of course, they just had to back me up. We kept getting sent out into the hallway in almost every class we have.

When Mr. Nicoll, our English teacher, asked me for the millionth time about why I can't study for spelling tests, I snapped and called him an old sot – whose meaning I had no idea about, but it just sounded right. That was when the headmaster sent my mom a letter to make it official. I won't be attending Yancy the following year.

Of course, news like that spreads like wildfire. Nancy Bobofit wouldn't stop tormenting me when she found out so Thalia decked her right in front of Mrs. Kerr, which of course also caused her to be expelled.

That gave the school bullies even more reason to torment us, and when one of them started to make fun of Nico's addiction to Mythomagic, it was his turn to lose it. Nancy ripped up some of his cards one day, and Nico went all cold and creepy before decking her. Yep, by the end of the week, dear Miss Bobofit looked so much like a bruised banana thanks to Thalia and Nico – who, by the way, also got expelled.

Fine, just fine. To be honest, I was homesick. I wanted to be with my mom. We lived in this little apartment on the Upper East Side, and the only bad thing about it is my abhorrent stepfather – and those stupid poker parties.

I'd miss so many things in Yancy too, of course. I've got a good view of the woods in my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance and the smell fo pine trees whice Thalia detested. I'll miss Thalia herself, of course, even if we loved to argue. We always watched each other's back, even when we weren't talking. I'll miss Nico and his addiction to Mythomagic – which helped him get pretty decent grades in Latin. He was a little creepy at times but he was a very good friend. Of course, I'll miss Grover, who was pretty cool even if he was a little strange. I'm not sure about his survival next year without us three around. I'll be missing Latin class and Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days. I'll miss the way that he believed that I could do well.

To be honest, I only studied for our Latin exams as the finals week got closer. I never forgot about what Mr. Brunner told us – about how his subject was life-and-death for me and my friends. I was starting to believe him.

During the evening before my final, I was so frustrated with my Latin book and tossed it across the dorm room, startling Nico who was busy rearranging the last of his Mythomagic cards. "What's the matter?" he yelped.

"Ugh, words are swimming in my head, man. Dyslexia," I muttered angrily. "There's no way that I can remember the difference between Chiron and Charon or Polydictes and Polydeuces. I can barely conjugate these Latin verbs too."

I began to pace the room, feeling like ants were crawling inside my shirt. Nico stared at me with those crazy eyes of his, but I could see his concern. "That's why I keep arranging my cards, you know," he said quietly. "I don't want to disappoint Mr. Brunner. He's expecting us to do our best."

Hearing him say that made me feel bad. Even Nico was doing his best in his own way and here I was, feeling too sorry to help myself. I picked up my mythology book and headed for the door. "Do you think he can help?"

"He could give you some pointers," agreed Nico. "Go."

Maybe I could even apologize for the big fat F that I will definitely score on his exam. I would feel bad if I left Yancy Academy with him thinking that I didn't try. Waving to Nico, I left our dorm room and made my way downstairs to the faculty offices, most of which were dark and empty. I suppressed a shudder. Luckily, Mr. Brunner's door was ajar. I could see the light from his window filtering to the hallway floor

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard people talking inside the office. I can't mistake Mr. Brunner's voice for anyone when he asked a question. I heard a voice – and it was Grover's. He said, "…worried about Percy, Nico and Thalia, sir."

I froze on the spot. Okay, I don't usually eavesdrop on people but hey, it was my best friend and he was talking about me and our other best friends to an adult. I inched closer, careful not to make any sound.

"…alone this summer," he was saying. "There was a Kindly One in the school! I don't know what they could want with Nico too, but now that we know for sure, they'll know it too and –"

"Things might become worse if we rush any one of them," replied Mr. Brunner in that patient tone of his. "We need them to mature more."

"We might not have enough time! They all set a summer solstice deadline and they –"

"Will have to resolve it without the three. Grover, we have to let them enjoy their ignorance while they can."

"But Nico –"

"Has no idea about his heritage too."

"They saw her…"

"Imagination," insisted Mr. Brunner. "The Mist was laid over the students and staff, so it will be enough to convince them."

"Sir, I can't fail in my duties," Grover said sadly. "They're my friends."

"You're not going to fail, Grover. I should have realized what she was whe I saw her. We just need to keep the three of them alive until next fall."

I dropped my mythology book, and it thudded on the floor. Mr. Brunner fell quiet, so I picked up the book and backed down the hall breathlessly. I saw a shadow sliding across the glass of Mr. Brunner's office door – and belonged to something way taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that eerily lookedl ike an archer's bow.

I slid into the nearest door and heard a slow clop-clop-clop, just like muffled wood blocks. It was followed by what seemed to be an animal snuffling right outside the door. I fought back a shudder when a large, dark shape suddenly paused right in front of the glass before moving on. I ignored the sweat trickling down my neck.

I heard Mr. Brunner speaking somewhere in the hallway. "Nothing. My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice fiasco."

"Me too," Grover said glumly. "Still, I could have sworn…"

"Go back to the dorm. You've got a logn day of exams tomorrow."

"Please, don't remind me."

I saw the lights go out in Mr. Brunner's ofice, and so I waited in the dark for what felt like forever before I returned to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he was doing it all night. Nico was staring at him with a baffled look so I made a mental note to tell him about it when Grover wasn't around.

"Hey, you going to be ready for this test?" Grover asked.

When I didn't answer, Nico stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. "You look terrible. Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired," I muttered, getting ready for bed. I understood nothing about what I overheard and I wished it was just my imagination. I was sure that Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking to me behind my back, though. And they thought that I was in some kind of danger with Thalia and Nico.

As if by an unspoken deal, I stood up to leave our three-hour Latin exam with those two. My eyes were still swimming with the Greek and Roman names that I definitely mispelled. Mr. Brunner called the three of us back inside, and it felt like my knees turned into Jell-o. I was worried about my eavesdropping escapade the night before, and was worried that he might have found out.

"Please, don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's for the best."

He still sounded as kind as he usually did, but the words were still embarrassing. I felt Thalia shift uncomfortably. Our teacher was speaking quietly but it was still enough for the other kids finishing the test to hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at us and made these sarcasting little kissing motions with her lips. Thalia getsured rudely with her hand behind her back. That shut her up.

"Well, okay, sir," Nico said, the usual enthusiasm gone from his voice.

"I mean…" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth with an uneasy look. Maybe he wasn't sure about what to say. "This isn't the right place for the three of you. It was only a matter of time."

My eyes stung. I caught Thalia glancing at me, and tears were welling up in her own eyes. Well, here was our favorite teacher, telling us right in front of the class that we couldn't handle it. He kept saying that he believed in the three of us all year but now he was telling us that we were all destined to be kicked out.

"Right," I muttered. I felt my body trembling horribly.

"No, no!" Mr. Brunner looked alarmed. "Oh, confound it all. I'm just trying to say that – that you're not normal. That's nothing to be…"

"Thanks. Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding us."

I nodded to Thalia and Nico before sweeping out of the room. Being the great friends that they were, they flanked me.

I angrily showed my clothes into my suitcase during the last day of term. I ignored the guys joking around and talking about their vacation plans. Nico's eyes widened when someone mentioned Switzerland and the Caribbean though. Even though these other guys were juvenile delinquents like me, but I had to remember that they were rich juvenile delinquents. They had daddies who were executives, or ambassador, or celebrities. Thalia even had a former starlet for a mom. Nico was being raised by some lawyer relative. I was a nobody from a family of nobodies.

They asked us about plans this summer. Nico said that he was going back to the city for a bit before his relatives take him to some other state for the summer. Thalia dropped in that time, and told us about her mom's plans to visit Los Angeles. Everyone stared at me then. I told them that I was going back to the city, but didn't tell them that I'll probably need to get a summer job by walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions. No need to tell them that I'll spend my free time worrying about what school would accept me.

"Oh. That's cool," one of the guys said before returning to their conversation, as if me and my friends never existed.

"Just ignore them," said Thalia. She smiled and handed out strips of paper containing her mom's phone number. "Call me when you have time, okay? My summer will probably suck."

"I'll miss you guys," Nico groaned. He shuffled his Mythomagic cards and held out two of them. He gave us one each. "I've got two of these, so you can each take one so you can always remember me during the summer!" He smiled proudly.

I looked at mine. It had the picture of a big, buff greek man with a warm smile that somehow felt achingly familiar. It took me some time to figure out what the card said. "Possum?"

"Poseidon, the Sea God!" Nico laughed. "And I gave Zeus the Sky God to Thalia because she kind of reminds me of him. I have Dionysus the wine dude for Grover. I wanted something cooler but I can't find other double cards."

I gave them these studded bracelets that my mom found for me. It wasn't really my type but at least well all had matching ones. The one for Grover was staying in my pocket until we reached Manhattan. Thalia handed us some keychains that she bought during our Christmas break – a trident for me, a skull for Nico and a lightning bolt for herself. We asked her about what she was giving Grover. She grinned and showed us a small enchilada keychain.

I really am going to miss them.

Grover forced us all to book tickets to Manhattan on the same Greyhound so we can spend more "quality time" before parting ways. There we were, together again, heading into the city, wearing the black beanies that Grover gave us. It was an unseasonably cold day, and he was glancing nervously down the aisle as he watched the other passengers. Thalia said that he was probably worried about being teased since he always did that whenever we left Yancy – like he was waiting for something bad to happen. Nobody was going to tease him on the Greyhound, though.

I couldn't stand it anymore. "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. Thalia snickered at him as he stammered, "Wha-what do you mean?"

I told them all about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner that night before our exam. Nico stared at me curiously.

Grover's eye twitched and he asked me about how much I heard. I just told him that I didn't hear much, and asked about this summer solstice deadline. He winced and gave our other friends a terrified look. "I'm just worried about you guys, okay? I mean, hallucinating together about demon math teachers isn't so funny…"

"Grover," growled Thalia. Did I mention that she yelled at us a lot when we acted like doofuses?

"So I told Mr. Brunner that you guys might be stressed to much. You know, because there's no such person as this Mrs. Doods and…"

Nico leaned against Thalia to tie his shoelaces and sighed. "Grover, you're the worst liar I've ever met."

His ears turned pink, and Thalia snickered. He fished out three grubby business cards from his pocket. "Please, you guys, just take this, okay? Just in case you need me this summer."

The fancy script on the card was horrible for my dyslexic eyes, so I could barely make out something like his name, address and phone number. "What's Half-Blood Hill?" Thalia asked in a low voice.

Grover yelped. "Don't say it aloud! That's my, um, summer address. Yes, that's it."

Even Grover had a summer home. I didn't consider him having a family that was as rich as everyone else from Yancy. "Okay," I said sadly. "So if you want us to come visit this mansion of yours…"

He nodded. "Or if you ever need me."

"Why would we need you?" Thalia blinked, realizing that it came out harshly.

"Thalia!" snapped Nico. "That was mean."

Grover blushed – right down to his Adam's apple, which was weird. "Look, you guys. The thing is, I actually kind of have to protect you."

The three of us stared at him blankly. We've gotten into fights all year long – even good-natured Nico – just to keep the bullies away from him. We spent nights worrying about him, about how he would get beaten up next year because we're not there to protect him. Now he's acting like he was the one who defended the three of us.

I gave him a look of horror. "What exactly are you protecting us from?"

As if on cue, there was this huge grinding noise right under our feet. Horrid black smoke poured from the dashboard, filling the entire bus with the smell of rotten eggs. With a curse, the driver forced the Greyhound over to the side of the highway and spent a few minutes doing something in the engine compartment. Finally, he announced that we all had to get off. So we filed off like everybody else.

We were in this country road that nobody would even notice if our ride didn't break down right there. Our side of the highway only contained maple trees and litter from passing cars, so it was pretty boring. Across the four lanes of shimmering hot asphalt was an old-fashioned fruit stand. I saw the stuff on sale, and they were really good. I could see boxes piled with bright red cherries and apples, walnuts, apricots, and these jugs of cider placed in a claw-foot tub filled with ice. I couldn't see any customers, which was a shame since the fruit looked delicious.

There were these three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs under the shade of this maple tree. They were knitting the biggest pair of socks I've ever seen. Literally. They're as big as sweaters but still obviously socks. The old lady on the right knitted one, and the lady on the left knitted the other. The one in the middle was holding this basket of electric-blue yarn. They all looked ancient, and had pale faces that were wrinkled like leather. Their silvery hair were held back by white bandannas, and I could see their bony arms sticking out of these bleached cotton dresses.

"They're staring at you," Nico whispered.

"While knitting socks for Godzilla," muttered Thalia. "Hey, Grover, you okay?"

Grover's face was white, like he lost all blood in it. His nose was twitching in terror. "Please tell me that they're not looking at one of you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they're staring at Percy," confirmed Nico.

I crossed my arms. "Weird, huh? I don't think those socks would fit me."

"Not funny. At all." Grover shuddered. The old lady in the middle took out this really huge pair of scissors that looked like gold and silver shears. Grover caught his breath. "We're getting on the bus. C'mon."

Thalia hissed. "What? But it's scorching hot in there."

"Come on!" snapped Grover. He pried the door open and began to climb in, but the rest of us stayed back, transfixed.

Right across the road, the little old ladies kept their eyes on me in that creepy way. The middle one cut the yarn with her scissors, and I could hear the snip, even across all four lanes of traffic. The other two balled up the socks.

"Sasquatch or Godzilla? Let's make a bet," Thalia joked half-heartedly.

The driver fished out a massive chunk of smoking hot metal from the engine compartment, and the bus roared to life with a shudder. Of course, the passengers cheered with the driver.

I was beginning to feel feverish once we got going. Probably the flu or something. Grover didn't look any better. H e was shivering and his teeth chattered. Nico and Thalia didn't speak either, and sat huddled together behind us.

"Grover?" whispered Nico.

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling us?"

Grover dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "What did you guys see back at the fruit stand?"

"Little old ladies," I muttered. "What is it about them? They're not hags like Mrs. Dodds, right?"

I wasn't sure about Grover's expression, but it felt like those ladies from the fruit stand were something way much worse than Mrs. Dodds. "Just tell me what you saw."

"They were staring at one of us, then the middle one took out her scissors and cut the yarn," Thalia said.

Grover closed his eyes and made this weird gesture with his fingers, kind of like he was crossing himself. The gesture wasn't that, though. It was something that seemed much more ancient. "You saw her snip the cord."

"Well, yeah. The scissors and the yarn were pretty big. Godzilla-sized."

"This is not happening." Grover began to chew on his thumb like a little kid. He gave us a terrified look. "I've heard of this happening before."

"And?" asked Nico.

"Sixth grade. It was also sixth grade. They never get past it." Grover groaned and gave me a long, scary look. "Let me walk you all home from the bus station. Promise me."

It was a weird request, but we all promised that we would, even if Thalia seemed a little uncomfortable about it.

"Is that some sort of weird superstition?" I asked him. When he didn't answer, I pressed on. "The yarn snipping thingie – does it mean that someone will die?"

Grover gave us a mournful look – as if he was wondering which of us was going to bite the dust first and what kind of flowers would look best on our coffin.

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**Liked it so far? Don't hesitate to leave a review here! ^_^ It's going to start being different in a few chapters.**


	3. Thalia Turns into a Lightning Rod

**Disclaimer: This amazing series belongs to Rick Riordan.**

**Arrrrgh, I was supposed to update tomorrow, but my scumbag boss was powertripping all day. Soooo...**

**Read on!**

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**Chapter 3: Thalia Turns into a Lightning Rod**

You might think I'm rude, but I ditched my friends once we reached the bus terminal. I was freaking out so much because of Grover's expressions, looking at me like I was a dead man. He kept muttering things like "Why does this have to happen to me?" and "I don't want to learn tap dancing."

Grover's bladder acted up when he was terribly upset, so I was already kind of expecting him to run to the restroom. He did, but not before making me promise to wait for him. Nico ended up following him. That left Thalia and me.

"You okay?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "Those weird freaky ladies won't ever leave anyone feeling okay, I think."

Thalia gave me a long look. "I have to pee." Oh. I thought she was going to say something to cheer me up.

So I did the only reasonable thing that I can think of once I was left alone in the middle of the bus station. I grabbed my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi headed uptown. I gave my address to the driver and told him to hurry. Something was telling me that I had to go home immediately – that being out on the streets was very, very bad.

I was excited to see my mom again.

Her name, by the way, is Sally Jackson, and she's the best mom – and person in the world. I guess that proves my theory that the best people in the world have th worst possible lock ever. She was orphaned at the age of five when her parents died in a plane crash, leaving her to be raised by this uncle who didn't really care about her at all. She dreamed of being a novelist so she spent her high school years working hard and saving enough money to go into a college that had a great program for creative writing. Everything was fine until her uncle got cancer and she had to quit school during her senior year to take care of him. When he died, she was left with nothing.

One of the few great things that happened to her would be meeting my dad. To be honest, I don't remember him at all – except for this warm glow and the barest trace of his loving smile. My mom doesn't want to talk about him much because it makes her sad and because she had no pictures of him. This is because they weren't married. He was rich and important, so they had to keep their relationship a secret. So one day, he had to set sail across the Atlantic on a business trip and never came back. He was lost at sea, mom told me. He wasn't dead, just lost at sea.

My mom worked odd jobs and took night classes to earn her high school diploma, all while raising me as a single mom. She never complained or got mad even once, though I know that I wasn't an easy kid to take care of.

She finally married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice only for the first thirty seconds we knew him. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this man is a world-class jerk of epic proportions. I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe when I was younger because – forgive me – it's the truth. He smelled like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts all day. The two of us put together made my mom's life harder than it already is. Smelly Gabe treated her horribly and we never exactly got along.

When I arrived in our little apartment, I hoped that my mom was already home from work. Bad luck, it was only Smelly Gabe in our living room, playing poker with his buddies as usual while ESPN blared from the television. I cringed at the chips and beer cans littering the carpet. He barely looked up when he spoke around his cigar. "So, you're home."

"Where's my mom?"

"Working. Got any cash?" That's Gabe for you. Not even civil enough to welcome me back or ask about my six months in Yancy Academy.

He put on weight and it made him look like this tuskless walrus that was wearing thrift-store clothes. I count three or so hairs on his head that are combed over his bald scalp – as if that made him look handsome.

Bleh.

He managed the Electronics Mega-mart in Queens though he stayed at home most of the time and made me wonder why he wasn't fired long, long before. He kept on collecting his paychecks and spent his money on nauseous-smelling cigarettes and naturally, beer. It's always beer with this guy. Whenever I was home, he expected me to fund his gambling addiction and called it our "guy secret." That meant that he would probably beat the life out of me if I told my mom.

"Uh, I haven't got any cash," I muttered.

He raised a greasy eyebrow. He has this special skill that lets him sniff out money like a bloodhound even if his horrible smell should have overpowered everything else. "You took a taxi from the bus station, lad. You most likely paid with a twenty and now have six or seven bucks in change. Somebody wants to live under this roof then he has to carry his own weight. Right, Eddie?"

Eddie was the super of the apartment building. He gave me a sympathetic look before turning back to the game. "C'mon, Gabe. He just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated with a growl – the normal type, mind you, not the one that Mrs. Dodds did when she turned into the evil hag. I wouldn't put it past him to turn into a monster though.

Eddie gave him a very impressive scowl and stared angrily at his pretzels as the other two guys passed gas in harmony.

"Fine," I muttered angrily. I dug out a wad of my money out of my pocket and threw it on the table. "Hope you lose."

"Your report card came earlier, brain boy. I wouldn't act like a brat if I were you."

I slammed the door right behind me as I got into my room which wasn't actually mine. It was Gabe's "study" during my school months, meaning that it was covered in old car magazines. He even shoves my stuff in the closet and leaves his muddy boots on my windowsill. He loves making it smell as nasty as him – a mixture of stinky cologne, cigarettes and stale beer. Home sweet home, huh?

I dumped my stuff on the bed with a huff. I hated Gabe so much. His smell was almost worse than my nightmares about Mrs. Dodds and the sound of those ancient fruit ladies' shears when they snipped the yarn. As soon as that crossed my mind though, my knees began to shake. I could still clearly visualize Grover's panicked face – and making us promise that none of us should go home without him. I wondered if he was still with Nico and Thalia. My insides felt chilled, and it felt like someone – or something – was looking for me, clambering up the stairs while swishing its horrid talons.

I heard my mom's voice say my name. She opened the door and all of my fears went out with a poof. That's my mom for you. She can make me feel good, make things seem better just by walking into the room. She had these sparkling eyes that changed color in the light and made her warm smile even better. Even if her long brown hair had some gray streaks already, I never thought of her as old. She's the kind of person who sees every good thing about me without any of the bad, and has never raised her voice or said any unkind word to anyone, not even to those who deserved it.

"Percy," she said with a smile. She gave me a tight hug. "I can't believe that you've grown since Christmas!"

She was still wearing her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform that smelled like my favorite things in the world like chocolate, licorice and every other candies she sold in that shop in Grand Central. As usual, she was bringing me this huge bag of "free samples" like she always did when I came home. So we sat together on the bed and I attacked my favorite blueberry sour strings. She ran her hand through my hair while she asked me about everything that I didn't put in my letters. She didn't even mention anything about my expulsion since she didn't care about that. All she cared about was if her son was okay, if he was doing alright. Even if I groaned and complained that she was smothering me, I was really glad to see her.

"Hey, Sally! How about some of that bean dip, huh?" Gabe hollered outside. I had to grit my teeth to prevent myself from getting up and decking him.

My mom is, like, the nicest and most loving lady in the world. She deserved to marry a millionaire, or at least someone that loved and appreciated her. Jerks like Gabe don't deserve her one bit.

I didn't want to upset her so I tried to sound happy about my last days in Yancy and assured her that I wasn't upset about the expulsion especially since I lasted almost the whole year. I had great friends and did okat in Latin. The fights weren't as bad as the headmaster said. I really did like Yancy, I said. I almost convinced myself about it and started to choke up. I remembered Grover, Thalia and Nico. I thought of Mr. Brunner. Nancy Bobofit wasn't so horrible anymore – well, until that trip to the museum.

Mom gave me a piercing look with her eyes, as if trying to dig out my secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"Of course not," I told her. I hated lying to my mom. Really. I wish I could tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the old fruit ladies but I thought it sounded too ridiculous.

Of course, she knew I was holding back something but she was too nice and didn't push me. She smiled and scooted closer. "I have a surprise for you. We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?" I asked, hoping against hope…

"Three nights, same cabin!"

"When?"

Mom smiled. "As soon as I get changed." I can't believe it. We haven't been to Montauk for the last two summers. Gabe told her that we didn't have enough money for it.

As if summoned by my thoughts, my vile stepfather appeare in the doorway. "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

I wanted to punch his lights out and scream. My mom caught my eye though, and I understood what she meant. She was offering me a deal: behave, be nice to Gabe for the meantime. Let her get ready to leave Montauk. Then we would get out of this hole. "I was on my way already, honey," she told him in her nicest tone. "We just discussed the trip."

Gabe narrowed his eyes. His nostrils flared as he gazed at me. "The trip? You really were serious about that?"

"Knew it. He won't let us," I said.

Luckily, my mom stayed calm. She smiled at Gabe. "Of course he will. Gabriel's just worried about money, that's all. Besides, he doesn't have to settle for plain old bean dip while we're gone. I'll make enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend! Guacamole, sour cream, the works."

Gabe softened a bit. He crossed his arms. "The money for this trip comes only from your clothes budget, right?" When my mom agreed, he gave me a pointed look. "You won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful," my mom agreed.

Gabe scratched his ugly double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip – and maybe if your brat apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

I wanted to kick him in his soft spot and make him sing sopranop for a week, but my mom gave me another warning look. I can't make him mad. It made me mad though – mad at Gabe, that is. Why did my mom have to put up with a guy like this? Why would she care about him?

"I'm sorry," I finally said. "I'm really sorry about interrupting your incredibly important and necessary poker game. Please go back to it right now."

I was lucky that Gabe's brain was incredibly tiny. It couldn't even detect the sarcasm in my statement. Nope. Nadda. Zilch. "Yeah, whatever," he muttered before going back to his incredibly important and necessary poker game.

"Percy, thank you so much," my mom told me. "We'll talk more about, uhm, what you've forgotten to tell me when we reach Montauk, okay?" I could see a brief flash of anxiety in her eyes – something similar to Grover's panicky fear during our bus ride. Maybe my mom felt the odd chill in the air too. Then she smiled again. She ruffled my hair before leaving to make Gabe's seven-layer dip.

We were ready to leave an hour later. Thank goodness. Gabe even took a miraculous break from his poker game, though he used the time just to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He complained nonstop about losing his cooking – and his beloved '78 Camaro – for an entire weekend.

"Not even a tiny scratch on my car, brain boy," he growled as I finished loading the bags.

Huh. As if I was going to be driving. I was only twelve, turning thirteen on August. That didn't matter to Gabe though. If a seagull pooped on his paint job, I'll still be the one to blame.

I felt so mad as I watched him return to the apartment building. I can't explain what I did next. I just made the hand gesture that I saw Grover make back on the bus – it felt like something that warded off evil – as Gabe reached the doorway. It was a clawed hand over my heart, followed by a shoving movement pointed toward Gabe. The screen door shut so hard that it smashed against his butt and threw him up the staircase. I snickered – it looked like someone shot him from a cannon. I don't know if it's just the wind or something weird in the hinges, but I didn't want to find out. I got into the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.

During the drive, my mind drifted to Thalia. I know that she didn't get along well with her mom, drank a lot and sometimes made a scene that she often ended up in tabloids with headlines like "Former Starlet Barfs on Popular Actor's Porch" or something like that. I kind of felt bad for her. Even if my stepfather was horrible, my mom was so nice and sweet to me. Then I remembered Nico, who had no parents. He couldn't even remember his mom. It made me feel doubly worse. I wish we had enough money to invite them on this trip too.

We eventually reached our rental cabin on the south shore. You can find this little pastel box with faded curtains at the tip of Long Island, half-sunken into the dunes. That's why the sheets always had a little sand in them. You could even find spiders in the cabinets, which I used to catch and turn into pets during the duration of our stay. The sea was too cold to swim in too, but I really loved the place.

We've been going there since I was a baby, though I knew that my mom was going even longer. She never exactly told me about it but I was sure that I had an idea why the beach was a special place to her. It was where she met my dad. I even saw her seem to grow younger as we got closer. The years of worry, work and Gabe disappeared from her face as her eyes began to reflect the color of the sea.

It was sunset by the time we arrived. The first thing we did was to open all of the cabin windows before cleaning the place. We decided to just unpack the next day and went for a walk on the beach. We fed blue corn chips to the seagulls while we munched on blue jelly beans, saltwater taffy and the rest of the free samples.

Gabe once told my mom that there was no such thing as blue food, which is kind of silly if you ask me since the evidence was already laid out right in front of him. They had a fight which seemed kind of ridiculous at the time, but my mom went out of her way to eat blue ever since. We had blue birthday cakes, blueberry smoothies, blue-corn tortilla chips and blue candy. This was evidence, along with keeping her maiden name of Jackson instead of being Mrs. Ugliano, that she wasn't suckered completely by Gabe. I bet I inherited my rebellious streak from her.

We made a dark when it got dark and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. I listened to mom's stories about her childhood – before she lost her parents to that plane crash. She told me all about these wonderful books that she wanted to write someday, once she saved enough to quit the candy shop. I even managed to be brave enough to ask her the thing I always wanted to whenever we went to Montauk – my dad.

Mom's eyes went all misty so I figured that she would tell me the very same things that she always did when I asked about him. I never got tired of hearing them, though. "He was kind," she would always say. "He's very tall and handsome. He's a powerful man who is also very gentle. You got his black hair and his sea-green eyes. His eyes, yes, they remind me of the sea, like yours."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag this time. She gave me this very loving look and smiled. "I wish he could see you right now. He would be so proud."

Excuse me, but what? How could she say something like that? There was nothing so great about me. I was dyslexic, hyperactive and could barely scrape a D+ on my report card. I got kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. "How old was I when he left?" I asked, trying to hide my discomfort.

Mom watched the flames with misty eyes. "He stayed with me only for one summer right here at this beach. This cabin."

Weird. "But he knew me as a baby."

"No, Percy honey, he knew that I was expecting you, but he never got around to seeing you. He had to leave right before you were born."

But I knew that I seemed to remember something about my father. I remember a warm glow and a smile, which is why I assumed that he knew me as a baby. My mom never said it to my face but it still felt true. Being told that he never even went to see me made me hate my father, whoever he was. It might sound stupid but I resented him a lot – for going on that ocean voyage, for being a ninny and not marrying my mom. He left us to put up with Smelly Gabe. "Will you send me away again?" I asked, voice choked. "Will I be going to another boarding school?"

Mom pulled her a marshmallow from the fire and tasted it. "I don't know honey, but we have to do something, I think." Her voice sounded heavy.

"You don't want me around?" I asked in a small voice.

Mom teared up. She took my hand and squeezed it. "No, percy. I have to. It's for your own good, sending you away." She kind of reminded me of Mr. Brunner's last words to me – that it would be better if I left Yancy.

"Is it because I'm not normal?"

"It's not a bad thing not to be normal, Percy, but you don't know how important you are. Yancy Academy seemed far enough away for me, so I thought you'd finally be safe."

"From what?"

Mom's eyes were wide and scared when she gazed at me, and I remembered the weird, scary things that kept happening to me. I tried to forget these. There was this man in a black trench coat and cowboy hat that stalked me during third grade and he had one eye right in the middle of his head. He only left when teachers threatened the police, but nobody believed me when I told them about his eyes. Back in preschool, a teacher put me down for a nap in some cot with a snake by accident. Mom was so angry and scared when she picked me up and found me playing with a dead snake – that I somehow managed to strangle.

Something creepy and unsafe kept happening in every single school, and I had to leave. It was kind of similar to Thalia and Nico's stories so it didn't matter to me much before, but now I felt the urge to tell her about the old ladies in the fruit stand, and slicing Mrs. Dodds to dust with a sword and erasing everyone else's memories of her. I couldn't tell her though, because I kind of sensed that it would end our stay here and that would be bad.

She had a worried look as she kept on talking. "I wanted to keep you as close to me as I could even if they kept saying that it was a mistake. The only other option was to send you to the place that your father wanted me to send you, but I can't do it. I just can't."

"Er, my father wanted you to send me to some special school?" I asked slowly.

"It's not a school, it's a summer camp."

Um, what? Why exactly would my dad talk to my mom about a summer camp if he didn't even stay around long enough to see me when I was born? My brain began to circle around that thought. Besides, for all of its importance, my mom never mentioned it before.

Mom saw the look in my eyes. "I'm so sorry, honey. I can't talk about it. If I send you to that place then it might mean that we'll be saying goodbye to each other for good."

"For good? It's just a summer camp.

Mom turned toward the fire sadly. I could see her expression and I couldn't push her too much by asking more questions. She would start crying.

That night, I dreamed that a storm raged on the beach while two animals tried to kill each other at the very edge of the surf. One of them was a beautiful white stallion and the other was this big golden eagle. The eagle used its talons, while the horse used his hooves. The ground began to rumble as they fought as a monster chuckled beneath them, goading them to fight even more.

I began to panic and ran toward them because I knew that it was up to me to stop them from killing each other. I was running too slowly though, and I saw the eagle dive down, beak aimed at the horse's eyes.

"No!" I yelled, waking up with a start.

There really was a storm – the bad type that cracks trees and blows houses down. Of course there was no horse and eagle on the beach, but the lightning was horrible enough to make false daylight and the pounding waves must have been twenty feet high.

Mom woke up with the next thunderclap. Her eyes were wide as she sat up. "Hurricane," she told me breathlessly.

"That's crazy," I told her. Hurricanes never came to Long Island this early in the summer. The ocean must have forgotten about that. The wind roared outside and I heard something bellow – it sounded angry and torturous. My hair stood on end.

I heard a closer noise that sounded like mallets in the sound. I heard a desperate voice yell out to us. This someone pounded on our cabin door. My mom jumped out of the bed, still in her nightgown and opened the door. Grover stood outside in the pouring rain, with Thalia and Nico who were shivering badly and looked absolutely terrified. He wasn't exactly like he usually did, though. "Been searching all night when you gave us the slip! We were being chased by Hades-knows-what from the bus station! What were you thinking?"

Thunder rumbled overhead as my mom gave me a terrified look. She wasn't scared of Grover. She was scared of why he came. "Percy," she shoutedover the rain. "What didn't you tell me about what happened at school?"

I couldn't reply. I was frozen, eyes stuck on Grover. I really just can't understand what I was seeing.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled, and I didn't register his Ancient Greek curse that I perfectly understood. Too much shock. "It's right behind us – been that way all day! Didn't you tell her?"

"Grover, what's going on?" Nico asked, teeth chattering. "We've found Percy. Can we go home now? And please explain to us why you're half donkey."

I was still staring at Grover, wondering how he led the others here alone, right in the middle of the night. He didn't have his pants on, and where his legs should be…

Mom gave me a stern look and demanded me to tell her everything, so I told her about the ladies in the fruit stand and Mrs. Dodds. My mom went white and stared at me with wide eyes ,which flickered to Nico and Thalia. She grabbed her purse and my rain jacket before thinking twice and tossing my backpack to me. "Get to the car, you four. Now."

Grover led the way to the Camaro – no, not running. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters. His muscular disorder story made sense all of a sudden. He could run so fast and limp while walking because he didn't have any feet. He had cloven hooves.

I caught Thalia's eye. She looked as bewildered as me. "When you disappeared, Grover asked us to help him look for you, so I called my mom and told her that I won't make it tonight. Reached her voicemail so I guess she's having another drinking session. Nico's lawyer uncle got angry and told him to come home immediately but Nico said that he'll deal with that once we found you. Grover took off his pants once we reached her and… that."

She was wedged between Nico and Grover, while I rode shotgun with my mom. We drove like madmen through the stormy night, winding along the dark country roads. Angry wind slammed against my stepfather's Camaro while rain washed over like waterfalls on the windshield. It made me wonder how much my mom could see anything but she kept up our insane speed.

Whenever lightning flashed, I glanced at Grover, who sat on the backseat. I wondered if I went crazy or if he was wearing some weird shag-carpet pants. I remembered the smell of lanolin from my childhood zoo field trips, though, and I think that my other friends could also see it clearly too. It's not like we could hallucinate together, right?

"Do you guys, um, know each other?" I asked.

Grover's eyes drifted to the rearview mirror even if ours was the only car on the street. "Not exactly. We never met in person though she knew that I was watching you. Same goes for Thalia."

"What?" Thalia asked as I said, "Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs and making sure that you're okay. Then we met Nico, and I watched over him too even if I don't know his relatives. But the friend part is real. I'm your friend."

"Um. We get that part but what exactly are you?" Nico asked.

"Does it matter right now?"

"Doesn't it?" I frowned. "My best friend is half-donkey."

"Blaa-ha-haha!" Grover yelled. I used to think that it was a nervous laugh. Wrong. It was an irritated bleat. "Goat! I'm a goat from the waist down!"

"Didn't you just say that it didn't matter?" Nico said.

Grover bleated again. "Other satyrs would trample you underhoof if they hear you insult them like that!"

"Satyrs?" Thalia flinched as lightning struck a nearby tree. "You don't mean like in Mr. Brunner's myths, right?"

"Those fruit stand ladies weren't a myth. So was Mrs. Dodd's."

"So you admit that she exists!"

"Of course."

Nico glared. "Why were you acting weird then?"

"You won't attract too much monsters if you knew less." Grover stated it like it was so obvious and we were being dense. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes and hoped that you imagined the Kindly One but it wasn't any good. You were starting to realize your heritage."

"What?"

There was this weird bellowing noise behind us again, and it was closer than ever. Whatever chased my friends from the bus station up to Montauk was still on our trail. My mom turned to us. "Kids, there's too much to explain, and we've got no time for that. We need to get you somewhere safe."

"Ms. Jackson?" Thalia said. "Who's after us?"

"Nobody much." Grover was still a little irritated about my donkey comment. Yeah, I totally understood that. "It's just the Lord of the Dead and some of his blood-thirsty minions."

"Grover!" my mom said.

"Sorry, Ms. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

I still didn't understand what was happening, but I knew that it was all real. We veered hard to the left, and my friends' heads bumped together. We entered a narrow road, past dark farmhouses, wooded hills and white picket fences holding signs telling us to pick our own strawberries.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

Mom's voice sounded tight – like she was trying so hard not to be scared not just for my sake but for that of my friends'. "We're headed for the summer camp I told you about – where your father wanted to send you."

"You didn't want me to go there!"

"Please. This is hard enough, honey. Try to understand that you and your friends are in danger."

"Because… old ladies cut some yarn?" Nico asked.

"Those weren't old ladies," explained Grover. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means, them appearing in front of you? They only do that when you – er, when someone's about to die."

"You said 'you.'" I said.

"No, I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Please!" my mom said. She swerved hard to the right and Nico's head knocked against Thalia's. I saw what she was avoiding- a dark fluttering shape that quickly vanished in the storm.

"What was that?" screamed Thalia. "Why is she following us? I thought Percy was the only one it's trying to look for!"

"Not with a scent as strong as you three put together! He'll be after all of you," wailed Grover.

"We're almost there," mom moaned, ignoring my question. "Please. Just one more mile."

We fell quiet, anticipating what was going to happen next. I wanted to arrive and leaned forward in the car nervously. There was nothing but rain and darkness outside. The countryside was empty as we neared the tip of Long Island. My mind drifted to Mrs. Dodds and the day she turned into that – that hag thing. She meant to kill us, and Mr. Brunner saved us by throwing that sword to me.

Before I could ask about him, Thalia shrieked and rolled down the windows. She held out her hand with a terrified look. I felt the hair rise at the back of my neck. Thalia yelled again and there was a blinding flash. I thought I was going to die, until a tree exploded and we went on our merry way.

"What…" Thalia said, as if just realizing what she did.

One of my friends redirected the lightning that was supposed to hit our car. Thalia acted like a lightning rod.

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**Hope you guys like it... so far. :D We're basically following Percy's adventures from the original stuff with two other Big Three kids added. Will it end well?**

**Read and review, as always! 3**


	4. We Fight a Load of Bull

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

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**Chapter 4: We Fight a Load of Bull**

Before we could react, there was a loud whack and a crunching sound – and our car suddenly flew. I screamed and bumped my head against the window. With another crunch, our car landed into a ditch.

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay," I groaned, trying to shake off the dazed feeling. At least I wasn't dead.

Couldn't say the same about our car, though. The rear bumper and compartment were crushed. The driver-side doors were all wedged in the mud, and the windows on the other side were all shattered. Thalia gave me a horrified look and pointed at the motionless lump beside her. "Grover," she said.

Grover was slumped over with a small line of blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Even if he was a barnyard animal, I didn't want him to die. I felt the color drain from my face – until he groaned, "Food!" There was hope.

On Thalia's other side, right behind my seat, Nico looked dazed. His eyes were fixed on the shattered windshield. "What is that?" he asked in horror.

Lightning flashed, and it illuminated a – a something that was striding toward us right where the road curved. It was the dark silhouette of what looked like a huge guy built like a football player with a blanket over his head. The top half of his body looked bulky and, uh, fuzzy. The way his hands were upraised made it look like he had horns.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Kids. Get out of the car." My mom's voice never wavered. She was deadly serious. She threw herself against her door, but it was jammed shut by the mud.

"Jammed – both doors here," Thalia grunted.

"Climb out the passenger's side," my mother said, pointing to my door. "You three need to run, understand? See that big tree?"

With another flash of lightning, I saw a huge pine tree that wouldn't have looked out of place in the White House at Christmas. It stood tall and proud at the crest of the nearest hill. "What's that doing in there?" Nico asked in confusion. He was still pretty dazed.

"That's the property line. Just get over that hill. Down in the valley is a big farmhouse. Run to it, don't look back, yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"But Ms. Jackson," Thalia said, trying to use her rare, patient tone. "You need to come too!"

I could see my mom's pale face. Her eyes went as sad as they did when she gazed at the ocean. "No," I said firmly, grabbing my bags as my friends did the same. "You're coming with us. Please. Help me carry Grover."

"Food," moaned Grover. His head lolled to the said.

Blanket-head was still heading for us, grunting and snorting. He was coming closer, and I realized that he wasn't holding a blanket over his head since his huge, meaty hands were swinging at his sides. It wasn't a blanket. That meant that the bulky, fuzzy mass was his head and that the points looking like horns were exactly what it says on the tin.

"He doesn't want Grover or me. He wants you," my mother explained quickly. "I can't cross the property line either."

"But…" Nico began.

"We don't have much time. Go. Please."

I got mad all of a sudden – mad at my own mother, at Grover who was a goat all of a sudden, and the horned thing that was heading for us like some sort of bull. I pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together – all of us. Come on, mom." I stepped out, and was followed by Thalia, then Nico who was dragging Grover from the car.

"We're not leaving you, Ms. Jackson," he said. "Please hurry."

Between the four of us, Grover wasn't that heavy. We began to stumble uphill through the wet, waist-high grass. I glanced back. Big mistake.

I got a good look at the monster – who easily cleared seven feet. He had beefy arms and legs bulging with muscles that looked ready to rip out of his skin. He wasn't wearing anything other than his bright white undies which would've been funny if he wasn't so terrifying. The top half of his body was covered in coarse brown hair, which started around his belly button and steadily got thicker the higher it went. He had a massive bull's head and massive, black-and-white horns that were horrifyingly sharp.

With a jolt, I realized that he must've caused our accident. Those arms were big enough to smash our car and send it flying into a far ditch. The worst thing is that I recognized the monster because he was in one of the very first stories that Mr. Brunner told us.

"He couldn't be real," Nico murmured. "That's…"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother told him. "They want to kill you so badly."

"He's the Min –" I began.

"Don't say his name. Names have power."

We were still a hundred yards uphill from the pine tree. I looked back and spotted the bull-man hunched over our car. He seemed to be peering in the windows but somehow it looked morel ike he was snuffling, nuzzling, whatever.

"What's he doing? Can't he see us?" Thalia whispered. She looked pretty scared. Grover began moaning about food again.

"He has terrible sight and hearing, so he goes by smell," my mother explained. "He'll figure out where we are pretty soon."

Spoken too soon. The bull-man angrily bellowed and picked up Gabe's Camaro. I could hear the chassis creaking and groaning – I can't help but wince. He raised the car overhead and threw it down the road. The old car was smashed into the wet asphalt, skidding in a shower of angry white sparks for around half a mile before stopping – and blowing up.

Gabe told me not to put even a scratch. Whoops.

"He'll charge when he sees us. Wait until the last second and jump out of the way – sideways. He can't change directions that well in the middle of charging. Do you understand?"

"Um, how do you know all this?" I asked.

"I was worried about an attack for a very long time so I was kind of expecting this. It really was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you?"

Our friend, the bull-man, bellowed angrily again before beginning his uphill march. He finally caught our scent and was now on his way to beat the pulp out of us or worse. We were just a few more yards away from the pine tree, but the hill was steeper and slicker now. Plus, Grover was weighing Thalia and my mother down. Bull-man was closing in – we had a few seconds more.

My mother was exhausted as she shouldered Grover – wresting him away from Thalias and said, "Go! Separate, but remember what I said."

I hated splitting up, but it felt right. It might be our only chance though, so I dropped my stuff and sprinted to the left. Thalia was right behind me before she veered farther to the left, while Nico veered to the right. The creature was bearing down on us, black eyes glinting with so much hatred and malice that if looks could kill, I would have probably died right then and there.

His razor-sharped horns were aimed straight at my chest when he lowered his head. He charged and I felt fear churning like a sea in my stomach. It was telling me to run, hide – anything to get away from the creature. I told myself to stay and hold my ground. I can't outrun the thing, so I jumped to the side at the last moment.

The bull-man kept charging right past me before bellowing in frustration and turning. He didn't turn toward me, no. He turned toward my mother, who was busy setting Grover down in the grass. We were at the crest of the hill, where I could just see a valley on the other side. The warm yellow glow of lights revealed a farmhouse even through the thick sheet of rain. It was half a mile away though, so I knew we won't make it together.

My mother was retreating downhill slowly, the bull-man's eyes on her as he pawed the ground. She was trying to lead him away from Grover. "What are you waiting for, you three? Run! I can't go any farther."

I stood dumbly, frozen in terror that clenched around me. The monster charged her, and Nico – who was nearer – jumped into action. He pushed my mother out of the way and they tumbled right to the pine tree. Well, at least, Nico did. Halfway through, my mother bounced right back to us as if she encountered some sort of invisible barrier.

She landed near the bull-man, who quickly grabbed her by the neck as she tried to scramble sideward. He lifted her even if she kicked and pummeled so hard that she should've put up a decent struggle at least.

"Ms. Jackson!" Thalia screamed.

Her eyes locked on the two of us. "Get Nico and go!" she yelled.

With an angry roar, the monster clenched his fists, closing them around my mother's neck. She vanished right before our eyes, melting into a golden form of light – like some sort of holographic projection. She was gone in a blinding shower of light.

"No!" I yelled, anger replacing my fear in a sudden surge. Nico was hurt or dead. My mom was gone.

Being the most vulnerable target, the bull-man began to lumber towards Grover – still lying helpless in the grass. He hunched over and snuffled my best friend, as if planning to lfit him up to make him dissolve too.

"Hey, ugly! Get away from him!" Thalia threw a rock which hit the monster on the snout.

Our friend bellowed and charged at her. Thalia sidestepped him but the bull-man's arm shot out, hitting Thalia in the shoulder with a crushing blow. She slammed against the pine tree and didn't move again after landing beside Nico. Bull-man kept coming after her, and I couldn't allow that so I stripped off my red rain jacket.

"You stupid piece of ground beef!" I screamed, waving my jacket as I ran to the monster's side. "Hey!"

The monster roared and turned toward me, shaking his fists. Thalia's eyes opened, and I could see my rage and terror reflected in them, mixed with pain. Was she injured? I had no time to find out.

That was when I had this crazy, stupid idea – which as still better than having none at all. I maneuvered my way to another side of the big pine tree, waving my jacket in front of the bull-man. So far, I was keeping his eyes glued on it. I was thinking that I could jump out of the way – away from my hurt friends – at the last moment, but of course it didn't go the way I planned.

The bull man came after me too fast and had his arms out. He will grab me whichever way I went to dodge him. Time seemed to slow down as my legs tensed. I couldn't job sideways so I had only two other ways to go: up or down. I chose up.

I leaped up and kicked off from the monster's head to use it like some sort of springboard. I turned midair and landed on his neck. I could hear Thalia screaming at me, but my mind couldn't process what she was saying. I had no idea how I managed to do it too. The monster's head slammed into the tree. The force of that impact almost knocked my teeth out. So that was what Thalia was screaming about?

The bull-man staggered around to try and shake me off, totally ignoring my helpless friends – which was the point, I guess. I locked my arms around his horns and did my best not to get thrown off. The thunder and lightning raging with the storm unsettled me and I couldn't really shake off the monster's smell – rotten meat.

He tried to shake and buck like some kind of rodeo bull. He could have flattened me easily if he just backed up into a tree, but then I realized that the bull-man had only one gear, which was forward. Grover was groaning in the grass, which was pretty bad – that was why Thalia remained motionless, to avoid drawing the monster's attention. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but I was getting tossed around and just bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" moaned Grover. Thalia's eyes blazed – like she wanted to tell him off too.

The monster headed toward Grover, pawing the ground and preparing to charge. I remembered the way he squeezed the light out of my mother and made her disappear in a flash of golden light. My fear and pain was totally gone in an instant, replaced by a raging flood of anger. It fueled my body, making me stronger and more aware. My hands curled around one horn and pulled backward with all my strength. The bull-man tensed, grunted in surprise, and screamed. He flung me through the air.

I landed on my back in the grass, my head smacking against a rock. Not my best experience so far. My vision was blurry once I finally sat up, but I had a broken horn in my hands – a bone weapon that was the right size for a crude knife.

"Percy! What are you doing?" screamed Thalia.

The bull-man charged at me and I rolled to one side. It was instinctive and I ended up in a kneeling position. The monster barreled past me so I drove the broken horn into his side, plunging it up his furry rib cage. He roared in pain, flailing and thrashing before he disintegrated into sand, blown away by the raging wind – just like Mrs. Dodds.

Once he was gone, the rain stopped. The storm raged on in the distance, though. I smelled like livestock, knees shaking, head hurting terribly. Weak and scared, I trembled in grief, anger and terror. I saw my mother vanish and all I wanted to do was curl up and sob, but we weren't safe yet. Thalia and I collected our things. We hauled Nico and Grover up, and staggered into the valley and into the farmhouse.

I was crying, calling for my mother – though Thalia didn't have a snappy comment like she always did. I think she was also shaken. I held on to Grover, Thalia clung to Nico. We locked our free arms together and trudged on, dazed, injured and grieving. We weren't going to let go of each other.

I collapsed on a wooden porch. I was barely conscious, and so was Thalia. You can only fight off any kind of pain for so long. A ceiling fan circled above us as moths flew around a yellow light, entranced by the warmth and safety it represented. A familiar-looking bearded man and this princessy girl with curly blond hair peered at us.

"They're the ones. They have to be," she said.

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "They're barely conscious. Bring them inside."

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**Wishing you all a very happy new year! :)**

**Read and review, I'd appreciate reading your comments and suggestions!**


	5. My Teacher Becomes A Horse

**Disclaimer: Percy Jackson's universe belongs to the wonderfully brilliant Rick Riordan.**

**I was really intent on posting this yesterday, but some of my links kept coming up with errors so I'm posting it today. Erk.**

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**Chapter 5: My Teacher becomes a Horse**

My dreams were weird. Some of them were about barnyard animals who either wanted to kill me or demanded for food. I woke up several times but passed out again. I vaguely remembered being spoon-fed by the blond girl. The food was like pudding that tasted like buttered popcorn. I recalled the girl asking me about something called the summer solstice and asking about something stolen. I couldn't respond, and she stared at the sleeping Thalia and Nico. Seemed like we were in some kind of infirmary.

I passed out in a haze again and woke up next to another, stranger sight. Thalia was still unconscious, but Nico was groggily propped up on his bed. He was staring at something in the corner of the room. I followed his gaze and almost jumped out of the bed. There was this big blond guy – built like a surfer, really – standing there. That wouldn't have been weird but he had a dozen blue eyes everywhere – his cheeks, forehead, hands – everywhere! That was enough to make me faint again.

I finally came around for good in a nicer place that wasn't weird at all. I was sitting in a deck chair on a very huge porch. It overlooked a pretty meadow with green hills in the distance. I could smell fresh strawberries lingering in the air. I had a blanket over my legs and a pillow behind my neck. I was feeling great, except that my mouth was horribly dry and my teeth all hurt like silly.

There was a tall, fancy-looking drink on the table next to me. It looked like iced apple juice with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. My mouth was so dry that I grabbed it the best way I could. My hand was weak though so I almost dropped the glass once I finally got it in my hand.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover leaned against the porch railing, looking haggard. He cradled a shoe box, dressed in blue jeans, green Converse hi-tops and a bright orange shirt saying Camp Half-blood. He looked like plain old Grover, not the goat boy. Beside him were Thalia and Nico, dressed like their usual punk-goth styled selves, holding empty glasses similar to mine. They looked like they were in slightly better condition. I could almost convince myself that the bull-man was a nightmare. That my mom was okay, we were still on vacation, stopped by this farmhouse and met up with my friends. Almost.

"You guys were amazing. You saved my life." Grover glanced at our other friends, who were shuffling uncomfortably. "I went back to the hill. It was the least I could do. Thought you might want this."

He placed the shoe box reverently in my lap. Nico helped me open it, I still felt so weak. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn with a jagged base and a bloodstained tip. It really wasn't a nightmare. I felt myself tearing up.

"I'm so sorry, Percy." Thalia averted her gaze. "We did do our best, right?"

"I know. You were amazing, Lightning Rod," I told her.

"It was the Minotaur, right?" Nico said, ignorning Grover's protests that it wasn't a good idea. "Mr. Brunner discussed him in the Greek myths. Half man, half bull."

"Uh, yeah," Grover relented. "You've been out for two days, Percy. Nico and Thalia were up for a few hours at most. How much do you guys remember?"

"My mom. Is she…"

Grover's eyes told me all that I needed. I glanced helplessly at Thalia, then Nico. They looked down sadly.

I fixed my eyes on the meadow, trying hard not to cry. I could see groves of trees, a beautiful winding stream, acres of strawberries spread under the vast blue skies and rolling hills. I could even see the tallest one, directly in front of it. The huge pine tree stood on top of it, tall and proud. Nothing should look as beautiful as the entire sight in front of me. My mother was gone, and nothing we did could have prevented it.

"Percy?" Nico asked tentatively. "I'm sorry. If I didn't push your mom…"

"Bull-dude would still have caught up to her and do worse things," I said.

"I'm sorry." Grover began to sniff. "I'm a failure. I'm the worst satyr in the world." He sobbed and stomped his foot so hard that his shoe came off. It was filled with Styrofoam except for that hoof-shaped hole. "Oh, Styx!"

Thunder rumbled across the sky even if it was blissfully clear. Grover struggled to return his hoot to his fake foot.

"Uh, you're a satyr, right?" Thalia asked. "I remember that day when Mr. Brunner talked about them. Uh, can I shave your hair? I want to see your horns."

I didn't care much about the existence of satyrs or minotuars, though. My mom was gone, squeezed into nothingness after dissolving in gold light. I guess that made me an orphan. I'm not going home to live with Smelly Gabe. I'll live on the streets. Pretend I'm seventeen and join the army. Form a street gang with Thalia and Nico. Anything.

Grover sniffled, looking like a kid – goat, satyr, whatever – who was expecting to be hit. "It wasn't your fault," I assured him.

"But it was. I was supposed to protect the three of you."

"D-did our parents ask you to protect us or something?" Thalia asked, raising a slender eyebrow.

"No, but it's my job – was. Used to be a keeper."

"Then why…" I began before feeling dizzy, my vision suddenly swimming.

"Don't strain yourself. Here." Grover helped me hold my glass and Thalia put the straw to my lips.

"Tastes like chocolate fudge cupcakes, right?" she told me with a small grin.

"No, it tastes like the peppermint iced chocolate from that coffee shop," Nico argued. "Right, Perce?"

I stared at them, confused. I was expecting apple juice, so why were they talking like that? I took a sip and recoiled. It tasted like liquid chocolate chip cookes – exactly how my mom baked those blue choc-chip cookes, buttery and hot, freshly cooked with the chips still melting. My body felt warm, good and happy as I drank it. Energy surged through me. It didn't fight the grief – nothing can – but it's like my mom brushed her hand across my cheek like she did when I was upset, telling me that it will all be okay.

"My mom – chocolate chip cookies," I croaked. "Blue ones." Before I knew it, I drained the glass, staring at it. It felt like I just had a warm drink but the ice cubes didn't even melt.

"Was it good?" Grover asked.

"Why did it taste differently for all of us?" Nico asked.

"Sorry, should've let you taste," I told Grover.

"How do you feel?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards." I grinned.

"Good, that's good. You shouldn't risk drinking any more of it."

"What do you mean?"

"He's been like that all day. Didn't answer any question and seemed scared out of his mind," Thalia informed me helpfully. "We don't know what's going on either."

Grover took our empty glasses gingerly – like they were dynamite – and set them on my table. "C'mon, Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse so my knees began to wobble as I tried to walk that far. My friends offered to carry the horn for me but I refused. I paid for it the hard way, so I won't let it go that easily. We reached the opposite end of the house, and I caught my breath.

I estimated that we were on the northern shore of Long Island, since I can see the valley reaching the water on this side of the house. It glittered about a mile in the distance. My mind went blank as I saw everything in the space between that. I could see buildings looking like ancient Greek stuff, like an open-air pavilion, an ampitheater and a massive circular arena, all looking brand-new. The marble columns sparkled in the sun. I spotted a sandpit where high school-age kids and satyrs were playing volleyball. There was a small, sparkling lake where kids in orange shirts like Grover's chased each other around a cluster of cabins in the woods. I saw kids in an archery range, while others rode horses down a wooded trail.

"D-do those horses have wings?" Nico asked, eyes wide.

"Well, you know, pegasi," Grover said absentmindedly.

At the end of the porch sat two men. They faced each other at a card table. I spotted the blond girl who spoon-fed me that pudding which tasted like popcorn, leaning on a porch rail next to them. My eyes moved to the man facing me, who was small, but porky. He had a big red nose, watery eyes and black curly hair that looked almost purple. He looked like those baby angels in churches – hubbubs, er, cherubs. Right. The dude was like a cherub who grew up in a trailer park. He wore this tiger-patter Hawaiian shirt and looked like he won't be out of place in Gabe's poker party. I bet he could out-gamble my evil stepfather.

"That's Mr. D, the camp director," explained Grover. "Be polite to him, okay? You have to. The grl there is Annabeth Chase. Just a camper, but she's been in here longer than most of the others. Plus, you already know who Chiron is…" He pointed to the guy whose back was to us. I noticed the wheelchair before the tweed jacket, thinning hair and the scraggly beard.

"Mr. Brunner?" Nico beat me to it. "What are you doing here?"

Our Latin teacher turned and smiled at us. His eyes glinted mischievously, the way they did when he did something crazy in class like pull a pop quiz and make all of the multiple choice answers the same. "Ah, you three. Now we have four for pinochle. Who wants to join?"

Thalia, ever the leader, stepped forward. She was offered the chair to the right of Mr. D, who gave us all a long look with his bloodshot eyes. He sighed. "I suppose I have to say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, blah blah blah. There. Don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Uh, thanks I guess," Thalia muttered before she scooted farther away from him. Smart move. Something I learned from living with someone like Gabe is how someone looks like once he's hit the happy juice. Call me a satyr if Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl. She came forward with a smirk. Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady helped me nurse the three of you back to health. Annabeth, my dear, would you mind checking their bunk? They'll be moving into cabin eleven for now."

"Sure, Chiron!" Annabeth smiled. She looked probably my age, a couple of inches taller than me, maybe slightly shorter than Thalia. She was way more athletic looking than me and my friends combined, though. Coupling her curly blond hair with her deep tan, she looked more like the stereotypical California girl in my mind – except for her eyes. They were a stormy gray shade that was intimidatingly pretty. They had a smart glint, like she was analyzing the best way to take all of us down in a fight. Her eyes flickered to the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I half-expected her to gush over it. Instead, she said, "You drool when you sleep." Then she chuckled and sprinted off, down the lawn.

Thalia snickered. I gave her my best death glare. "Shut it, Grace."

"Do you work here, Mr. Brunner?" Nico asked. I gave him my most thankful look for changing the subject.

"My name isn't actually Mr. Brunner. It was just a pseudonym, I'm afraid. You may call me Chiron."

"Uh, okay."

I glanced at the director. "Does – does Mr. D stand for something?"

Mr. D gave me a look – as if I did something rude like belching loudly, as he stopped shuffling his cards. "Young man, names are very powerful. Don't go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Uh. Sorry."

"I must say, I'm glad to see you three alive. Especially since…" Mr. Brunner – no, Chiron, looked away, eyes darkening. "I haven't made a house call to a potential camper – let alone three – for a very long time. I'd hate to think that it was a waste of time."

"Er, house call?"

"The year I spent in Yancy Academy was to instruct you. We have satyrs stationed in most schools, of course, to keep a lookout. Grover alerted me as soon as he met you, so I decided to come upstate. It was more serious than it looked like since for some reason, there were three of you. I convinced the other Latin teacher to, ah, take a leave of absence."

I vaguely recalled the beginning of the school year. It felt like lifetimes away, but I had a fuzzy memory of a different Latin teacher during our first week at Yancy before he disappeared without explanation, the class being taken over by Mr. Brunner. "You came to Yancy just to teach the three of us?" I asked in confusion.

Chiron nodded encouragingly. "I wasn't sure about you at first. I contacted your mother, then Thalia's. We couldn't get in touch with Nico's sadly, so I'm afraid they might not know that we're keeping an eye on you, just in case you're ready for Camp Half-Blood. Still, you have so much to learn. You made it here alive though – which is the first test all the time."

"First test?" Thalia mouthed in horror.

Mr. D tapped his feet impatiently. "Are you playing or not, Grover?"

Grover began to tremble as he took the fourth chair. "Y-yes, sir!" I had no idea why he was terribly scared of a pudgy little man – especially a pudgy little man wearing a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

Mr. D gave Thalia a suspicious look. "You do know how to play pinochle, right?" he asked.

"Uhm, afraid not, sir." Good thing Thalia was respectful. I wouldn't have called that guy anything like sir.

"Well then, missy, now is the time to teach you. This, along with gladiator battles and Pac-Man, is one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. It is why I expect all civilized young people to know the rules."

"The young lady can learn," Chiron said.

"Please, sir. What is this place?" Nico asked. He looked at the greek buildings outside. "What are we doing here? Mr. Brunner, er, Chiron, why would you come to Yancy just to teach us?"

Mr. D snorted. "Lad, I asked him the same question." He began to deal the cards with Grover flinching everytime one of them landed in his pile.

Chiron gave us a sympathetic smile like the way he used to do in Latin class. It was his way of letting us know that no matter what our average was, we were his star students. He expected one of us to always come up with the right answer. "Didn't your parents tell you anything?"

"I don't have any parents anymore." Nico looked down. "My guardians don't exactly tell me anything, not even to explain why I only remember having Franklin Roosevelt as our president before the current one."

"Dude, what were you eating? FDR was president around sixty – seventy years ago," Thalia said.

Chiron's eyes darkened. "You're giving me more mysteries to delve into, Nico, but thank you for informing me of your, ah, memory lapse. We may yet find an explanation for it. What about you, Percy, Thalia?"

"My mom and I aren't exactly close," grumbled Thalia. "But during one of her good days, she was afraid that someone would come for me, and that she would be forced to give me away when they do – and she would be left with nobody and nothing to remember my dad by. Whoever he is."

I recalled my mom's eyes drifting sadly over the sea. "She told me that she was afraid to send me over to some camp, but my father wanted her to. She told me that I probably couldn't leave once I was here and that she wanted to keep me close to her."

"Typical, typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young lady, will you be bidding or not?"

"Um, what?" Thalia asked. She instructed – quite impatiently – about how to bid in pinochle so she did.

"There's not much to tell," Chiron said sadly. "We have an orientation film that we usually show, but it might not be sufficient. No, it won't. You know that your friend, Grover, is a satyr. You know of the Minotaur and even slew him. That's not a small feat either, especially at your age and even with the help you got. You might not be aware, though, that there are greater powers at work in your life. Gods – the forces known more commonly as the Greek gods - are alive. Very much so."

I stared at everyone else, waiting for someone to make fun of us. "Oh, a royal marriage!" Mr. D hollered. "Trick, trick!" He cackled, tallying his points.

"Mr. D," mumbled Grover, "if you won't eat it, may I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Huh? Oh, fine."

Grover took the empty aluminum can and took a big bite out of it. He chewed mournfully as he stared at his cards. Perhaps, contemplating if he could eat it?

"So you're now telling us that there's such a thing as God?" Thalia asked, eyes on her cards.

"God – capital G, God, is a different matter altogether. We won't be dealing with the metaphysical. Now with gods, plural, as in the great beings who have power over forces of nature and human endeavors, or the immortal gods of Olympus are a smaller matter," Chiron said."They are the gods we discussed in Latin class, if you recall."

"Oh, and they're in my Mythomagic cards too!" Nico said excitedly. "Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades…"

There it was again, that rumbling thunder on a clear, beautiful sky. Mr. D regarded Nico with a dark look. "Young man, I wouldn't really be less casual about throwing those names around if I were you."

Nico's eyes had that mad, intense look again. They were gazing at Mr. D with a crazy, burning look. "So you mean to say that they're not just myths to explain lightning, the seasons and stuff? They're not just how people explained things before science? Cool!"

"No, they're not. Neither is Perseus Jackson just a myth about boys who lost their mommies. Thalia Grace just a story about girls who don't get along with their small-time star moms. You mortals, you absolutely have no sense of perspective. That's what I love about you."

I didn't really like Mr. D much, but the way he called us mortal was as if he wasn't. Wasn't mortal at all. Nope. It felt like there was a lump in my throat. Now I understood why Grover was minding his cards dutifully while chewing his soda can – and why he kept his mouth shut. I exchanged glances with Nico, who still seemed crazy excited.

"You may choose to believe or not, but immortal does mean immortal." Chiron's voice sounded bitter and sad. "Can you imagine, for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing the way you are for all eternity?"

The way he said it, it didn't sound like a pretty good deal. " You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.

"Yes, exactly. How would you feel like if you were a god, and someone called you an old myth to your face, some story told to explain lightning?"

"We won't like it, probably," Thalia responded. "But I don't really believe in gods."

"You'd better, missy." Mr. D eyed her with distaste. "One of them might incinerate you. Bad enough that I'm confined to this miserable job, working with children who don't even believe!" He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table. It was like the sunlight bent momentarily to weave air into glass – which filled itself with red wine. My jaw dropped.

"Mr. D, your restrictions," warned Chiron.

Mr. D glanced at the wine before feigning surprise. "Oh, dear me." He looked at the sky. "Old habits, father! Sorry!" Thunder rumbled again. Mr. D waved his hand, and the wineglass transformed into a can of diet coke. With a sigh, he sadly popped the top of his sode and returned to the card game.

Chiron gave us a glance. "Mr. D offended his father a while back when he took a fancy to a wood nymph that was declared off-limits."

"A… wood nymph," Nico said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," confessed Mr. D. "Father actually loves punishing me. The first time was Prohibition. That was absolutely ghastly! I spent ten horrid years. The second time – well, she really was that pretty. I can't stay away. He sent me here in Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. Told me to be a better influence, work with youths rathe than tear them down, blah, blah, blah. Ha! Absolutely, irrevocably unfair." He sounded about six years old, a pouting little kid who didn't get the candy he was asking for.

"And your father is…?"

"Di immortales, Chiron! I thought you taught these kids the basics. Of course my father is Zeus!"

My mind automatically ran through the list of D names from Greek mythology. Wine, the skin of a tiger and the satyrs that work here – I remembered Grover cringing, like Mr. D was his master. "You're Dionysus." I said.

"What do they say these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Perseus Jackson, were you expecting me to be Aphrodite or that gas-bag brother of mine, Apollo?"

"Um, sorry, no."

Nico's eyes brightened madly again. He smiled. "You're that wine dude, Dionysus? Cool! Even though you only have five hundred attack power, I think your powers are pretty sweet!"

"The. Wine. Dude." There was a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, like I was only seeing the smallest traces of his true nature. I could see grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors mad with bloodlust, sailors screaming as they transformed into dolphins. If we pushed him, I knew that he could show us worse things – things that could plant a disease in our brains and cause us to be cast in a rubber room – dressed in a straitjacket – forever. Then it immediately shut off. "Yes, my powers are pretty sweet, Nico di Angelo. But never underestimate me, simply for being the youngest of the gods."

Nico backed away slowly after that, the crazy light in his eyes gone too. He looked absolutely terrified. "Sorry, sir."

"Don't be. It's fun to be appreciated more than usual every now and then," admitted Mr. D. "I just wanted to show off my powers to new kids. Now, I believe I win."

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron told him with a grin. He set down a straight, tallied his points and chuckled. "I'm afraid the game goes to me."

I was afraid that Mr. D would vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair or turn him into a raving lunatic of a dolphin, but he just sighed through his nose. It seemed like he was used to being defeated by our Latin teacher. With a sigh, he got up and Grover followed him. "I'm tired and need a nap before tonight's sing-along. But first, Grover, we need to have a talk about your less-than-perfect performance on your very first assignment."

Grover's face was beaded with sweat as he said, "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to us. "Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo – Cabin eleven. Please remember to mind your manners." He moved into the farmhouse, followed by Grover.

"Will G-man be okay?" Thalia asked forlornly.

Chiron nodded, though I caught the troubled look in his eyes. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He's just angry – bitter with his job. He was, ah, grounded, in mortal terms and can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back home to Olympus."

"M-Mount Olympus," I said. "Now you're telling me tha there's a real palace in there?"

"Well then, there's Mount Olympus in Greece, and there's the home of the gods, where their powers converge. It did, indeed, use to be on Mount Olympus. We still call it Mount Olympus – out of respect for the ways of old, of course – but the palace moves, just as the gods do."

"Uh, and that means… the Greek gods are here, in America?"

"Of course, they do. They move with the heart of the West."

"Heart of the what now?" Thalia asked.

"My dear Thalia, it's what you call 'Western civilization.' It's not just an abstract concept, it's actually some kind of living force. It's a collective consciousness which has burned bright for thousands and thousands of years. The gods are part of it, and I guess that they're also the source of it. They're tied to it so tightly that they couldn't – wouldn't fade unless the entire Western civilization has been wiped out. The fire started in Greece – and I hope you know that it moved in Rome since you passed my course. The gods changed names but they were the same forces, the same gods."

"Then, uh, they died," Nico replied.

"Died? Of course not! Did the west die? The gods simply moved to Germany, France, Spain – for a while. Wherever the flame burned the brightest, the gods moved there. They even spent several centuries in England. Give architecture a look, and you will learn that the people have not forgotten the gods. Wherever they ruled for the last three thousand years, they are depicted in paintings, statues, the most important buildings. And yes, my young ones, they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol – the eagle of Zeus. The statue of Prometheus is in Rockefeller Center. There are Greek facades in your government buildings in Washington. There's no American city without the Olympians displayed prominently in numerous areas. You might like it, you might not – and believe me, plenty of other people disliked Rome quite a lot too – but the heart of the flame is now in America – the greatest power of the West. So, Olympus is here and so are we."

"You're saying it that way – like we're part of that 'we.'" Thalia gave him one of her focused gazes that often intimidated me. "It's like – like we're part of some club."

"Who are you, Chiron?" I asked quietly. "Who – who am I?"

Chiron gave as a sad, hopeful smile and shifted his weight, like he was about to get out of the wheelchair. Impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down. "Who are you? Well, we all want to answer that question. For now though, you need a bunk in cabin eleven and meet new friends. There's plenty of time for lessons tomorrow and besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight. I love chocolate so much."

That was when he did rise from his wheelchair. It looked weird when he did it though, since his blanket fell from his legs – which didn't move at all when his waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first I thought he was wearing this long, white velvet undies – but he kept rising out of the chair – and he was taller than any normal man. I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear, but the front of an animal. I could see the muscle and sinew flexing under the coarse white fur. The wheelchair wasn't exactly a chair, but more like a container. It was an enormous box on wheels that must have been magic since he couldn't fit in all of that. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge, polished hoof. Soon, the box was empty – just a metal box with some fake human legs.

A horse sprung out from the wheelchair – a massive white stallion. Where its neck should be was my Latin teacher's upper body, grafted smoothly to the horse's body. "A centaur…" Nico said, remembering our Latin lessons, as usual. "Awesome."

"What a relief," Chiron said. "My fetlocks have fallen asleep from being cramped in that box for so long. Now come, Percy, Thalia, Nico. Let's meet the other campers."

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**Thanks for reading, guys! I really do hope that you might leave a review, it really makes my day. :3**


	6. I Get Potty Powers

**Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except the laptop and the PC.**

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**Chapter 6: I Get Potty Powers**

Okay, I'll admit it: I freaked out – but not as much as Thalia did. Her eyes went really wide and she stared at the lower half of Chiron's body. I was kind of scared that she might faint. Her skin was so milky white, I could see the light freckles sprinkled across her nose. "Y-you're a h-horse!" she stammered.

Chiron flicked his tail, clearly offended. "Of course not, my dear. I am a centaur."

"Centaur. Cool." Nico blinked.

Chiron gave him a warm smile. Maybe nobody told him before that being a centaur was cool. "Thank you, Nico. Now, come. There's so much to see."

We had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind our horse-y Latin teacher. Thalia and Nico were smart enough to follow my lead. If you're wondering why, I've been on pooper-scooper duty in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade before – a few times, actually. Sorry to say it but I would never trust Chiron's back end like I trusted his front.

When we passed by the volleyball pit, the campers playing stopped. They nudged each other and one even pointed to the minotaur horn that I carried. "That's him," another said. "With his friends."

Most of the campers were older than us – high school-age, maybe. The satyrs with them were all bigger than Grover, wearing the bright orange camp shirts. They didn't wear anything to hide their goat half. At all. I'm no shy guy, but their stares made me uncomfortable. What, where they expecting us to do backflips like some dance group?

I glanced back at the farmhouse, realizing that it was bigger than it first seemed. It was four stories tall, painted sky blue and trimmed with white. It reminded me of upscale resorts. The brass eagle weather vane caught my eye, and I saw something. A shadow moved in the uppermost window, somewhere in the attic. It seemed like something moved the curtain for a second. I shuddered. It felt like someone – or something was watching us.

"What's up there?" I asked.

Chiron looked at where I was pointing and lost his smile. "It's the attic, Percy."

"Does someone live there?" Thalia asked. "You'd probably have a good view there."

"No, no." Chiron's voice sounded final – resigned. "No single living thing."

I knew that he was telling us the truth, but I was sure that someone moved the curtain. I glanced at my friends. "Later," I told them.

Thalia nodded, but Nico glanced at the attic window, looking freaked out. "It's giving me the goosebumps."

"Come along now," Chiron said, forcing his lighthearted tone to return. "We have a lot to see before I introduce you to your cabinmates."

The smell of strawberries were pleasantly lingering in the air when we walked through the fields. Campers were picking bushels upon bushels of ripe red berries while a couple of satyrs played a haunting tune on their reed pipes. Chiron explained that they exported these to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus itself. "You see," he said, "it helps in paying for our expenses. Plus, the strawberries don't take much effort at all." He then proceeded to explain that Mr. D had an effect on fruit-bearing plants, making them go crazy with his presence. It worked best with wine grapes but due to his punishment, they hd to grow strawberries instead.

My eyes settled on the satyrs playing their pipes. The music kept bugs out of the strawberry patch, fleeing like refugees from a fire or a storm. I wondered if Grover can use magic music too, and if he was still being chewed out by Mr. D in the farmhouse.

"Will Grover be okay?" Nico asked, gazing back at the big house with unfomcortable eyes. "Won't he get in much trouble? I mean, he was a very good protector, and it wasn't his fault that the Minotaur decided to smash our car and knock him out."

Chiron sighed and removed his tweed jacket. He draped it over his horse back, kind of like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams – too big to be reasonable for him. He needs to demonstrate great courage to reach his goals. He must succeed as a keeper, find a new camper and bring him or her safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"B-but he did that! And he found three of us, didn't he?"

"I do agree with you, but it's not my place to judge. That is the job of Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders. They might not see this as a success as he lost one of you in New York, and the, ah, unfortunate fate of Sally Jackson. Besides, Grover was out cold when you brought him to the property line. It's enough for the council the question any sign of courage from Grover."

I felt bad. None of it was Grover's fault – it was actually mine. I shouldn't ran off from the bus station and get him in trouble. "Will he be given a second chance?"

"I am not so sure of that," Chiron said. "He almost got three potential campers killed. They won't be so anxious to give him another chance. I did advise him to wait before he tried. He's so small for his age."

"Small? How old is he, exactly?"

"Twenty-eight, I believe."

"Twenty-eight, and he's in sixth grade?" Thalia asked. "Is he that, uh, slow?"

"No. Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, so he has been the equivalent of a middle schooler for the past six years."

"Ugh, that's horrible." I made a face.

"Yeah," agreed Thalia. "I'd rather wear pink than spend six years in middle school."

"Hey, I'd like to see that," Nico said. He whithered under Thalia's glare.

Chiron smiled. "Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards. He's not even accomplished at woodland magic, but he was anxious to pursue his dream. Now, I'm afraid he might have to pursue another dream."

"That's not fair. He deserves another chance," argued Nico.

"I know, but it is not our place. The last time a satyr failed – well, let's just say it was not a pretty sight." Chiron looked away, and I was afraid that something horrible happened before. My mind began to whirl crazily as I remembered him talking about my mother's fate – as if he really was avoiding telling me that she was dead.

Hope kindled in me. It was small, but brightly blazing. "Chiron, if the gods and Olympus and everything in between are real, then does that mean that the Underworld is real?"

Chiron's eyes darkened, flickering momentarily to Nico. "Yes, it is," he told me slowly. "It's where spirits go after deat. But we must wait and know more, so please, put it out of your minds."

"What do you mean?" Thalia asked, putting a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

"Come on, let's see the woods," Chiron said, avoiding the subject. He still looked uncomfortable and nervous.

"Will you look at that," Nico said, gazing at the woods sprawled in front of us.

It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with massive trees that gave it an abandoned air. "Nobody must've went there since the Native Americans!" Thalia said in awe.

"Not quite," Chiron replied. "We have activities there, and the woods are stocked. You can try your luck but please don't go unarmed."

"Er, stocked with what, and armed with what?"

"You will see. We have capture the flag on Friday night. Do any of you own a sword and shield?"

"What? Of course not," I said.

"I think you three will fit into a size five. I'll have to pay a visit to the armory later."

I vaguely wondered about what kind of summer camp needed – or even had an armory. So we continued the tour, and we checked out the archery range and the canoeing lake. Chiron didn't seem to like the stables much. Huh, I wonder why? We even visited the javeline range, the sing-along amphitheater and an arena. "They hold sword and spear fights in there," Chiron explained to us.

"Why would we have sword and spear fights?" asked Nico.

"We have cabin challenges and all that. They're not lethal most of the time." Chiron's eyes darkened again before shaking his head. "Look, there's the mess hall."

It was an open-air pavilion that was framed by pretty white Grecian columns. The place was standing on a hill that overlooked the sea, and contained twelve stone picnic tables. It had no roof or walls.

"What do you do when it's raining?" I asked.

Chiron gave me a look, like I was being too weird. "Of course we still have to eat." That was enough for us to drop the subject.

The last things he showed us were the twelve cabins that were nestled in the woods, right by the were aranged to form a U-shape with two at the base, and five in a row on either side – and were the strangest group of buildings that I've ever seen. They looked absolutely nothing alike aside from their brass numbers – odds on the left and evens on the right.

I could see smokestacks on number nine – like a small, steampunk factory. Four had tomato vines on its walls and a grass roof. Seven was made of solid, gleaming gold while eight was made of silver. They all faced a central area that was the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, water fountains, some flowe beds and basketball hoops.

In the very center of the field was a huge firepit lined with stones. The hearth smoldered even in the middle of the pleasantly warm afternoon. A girl, maybe nine or ten, tended to the flames and poked at the coals with a stick. She vaguely nodded to us before focusing on the pit again.

I stared at the cabins that headed the field – one and two. They looked like his-and-hers mausoleums or upscale banks. They were made of solid white marbles that had heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of all, with polished bronze doors that shimmered in a way that lightning bolts seemed to dance across them from all angles. Two was more slender and graceful, with slim columns wrapped with pomegranates and flowers. The walls had peacock carvings, which was kind of weird.

"Zeus and Hera?" asked Thalia. She gave the two cabins a look of distaste.

"Yes, that's right," Chiron said.

"Why do they look empty?"

"Several cabins are, so yes, nobody stays in one or two."

"Maybe the cabins have different mascot gods or something," Nico whispered to me with a grin. "You know, twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians."

"But why would some be empty?" I asked. I walked to the first cabin on the left – cabin three. It wasn't as elaborate or self-important as one and two, but it was long, low and solid. Its walls were made of a rough gray stone that was studded wit hbits of shells and corals – like they were taken straight from the depths of the sea. I peeked inside the doorway, but Chiro called out, "I wouldn't do that!" Before he and Nico pulled me back, I caught a whiff of the salty scent that I always associated with the wind in Montauk. I could see glowing walls and six empty bunks with silk sheets. It looked lonely and unlived in. I felt sad for it and was glad that Chiron put his hand on my shoulder. "Come along now."

A lot of the other cabins were jampacked with campers, like bright red cabin five which looked like it was painted with buckets and fists. It was lined with barbed wire and had a stuffed boar's head on its doorway. I spotted big, beefy, mean-looking kids, both girls and boys. They arm wrestled and argued while rock music blared inside. The worst was a girl around thirteen or fourteen, wearing a massive camp shirt and a camouflage jacket. She gave us an evil sneer. Immediately I was reminded of Nancy Bobofit, but she was bigger and buffer. Her long brown hair was stringy.

I looked away and we kept walking. "So, are there other centaurs here?" Thalia asked, her eyes gazing at cabin one with a curious look.

"Ah, no," Chiron mumbled. "My kinsmen are wild and barbaric – too barbaric for camp. You can encounter them in the wilderness or major sporting events, but none of them are here."

Nico stared at him with a grin. "You said your name's Chiron so are you really the Chiron from the stories?"

"Er, yes," Chiron told us with a smile. "I trained Hercules and all that."

"B-but shouldn't you be dead?"

Chiron paused, apparently intrigued. He raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about should, but I can't be dead. Long, long ago, the gods actually granted my wish so I can continue the work that I loved so much. I will teach heroes as long as they – and therefore I – will be needed by humanity. I gained a lot from that wish and gave up many things too, but I am still here and therefore still needed."

Being a teacher for three thousand years? I wouldn't have signed up for that. "Don't you die of boredom?"

Chiron shook his head sadly. "It gets horribly depressing at times but it is never boring."

"Why would it be depressing? All of your students end up being legendary!" Thalia said.

Chiron feigned deafness again. "Annabeth is waiting for us, look!"

The blond girl named Annabeth was reading a book right in front of the last cabin to the left, cabin eleven. She gave me a critical look as we arrived, probably thinking about how I drooled. I shrugged and took a peek at the book she was reading, but I couldn't understand the title. The letters looked Greek – like, Greek letters. I could see pictures of temples, statues, columns – like you would find in an architecture book.

"My masters' archery class is at noon," Chiron announced. "Annabeth, would you take our young friends from here?"

"Yes, sir." Annabeth smirked at me.

"Cabin eleven. Make yourself at home," Chiron said, gesturing at the doorway.

That cabin was the one which resembled typical summer camp cabins the most. It looked pretty old, with a worn down treshhold and peeling brown paint. The doorway had the doctor symbol – the winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. I think it's called the caduceus.

"That's the caduceus, I think," Nico said.

"Yes, that's right," Annabeth said, her appraising eyes resting on Nico. She frowned momentarily before opening the door.

The cabin was jampacked with people – both boys and girls. There was way too much of them to fit in the bunk beds so there were sleeping bags on the floor. It looked more like an evacuation center. I looked back, only to find that Chiron was still outside. Hey, the door was too low for him to fit him. The campers all stood up and bowed respectfully upon seeing him, though.

"Ah. Good luck, you three. I'll see you at dinner," our teacher said before galloping to the archery range.

I looked at the kids, who weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at us, sizing up the newcomers. I was familiar to that routine – it happened in every school I came to. "This isn't a good start," I mumbled to Nico.

"We'll be okay," he said with a gulp.

"Well?" Annabeth said, raising an eyebrow. "Go on."

Nico and I tripped and stumbled as we came in, making total fools of ourselves. The campers snickered but nobody said anything. Thalia strode in with such confidence that the campers stared at her in awe.

"Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo, meet cabin eleven," Annabeth said.

"Regular or undetermined?" one of them asked.

My friends and I stared at each other, not knowing what to say. Annabeth said, "Undetermined." Well, that settles it. Everyone groaned.

An older guy came forward with a smile. "Now, campers, that's what we're here for, right? Welcome, guys. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there." He was about nineteen and looked really, really cool. He was tall, muscular, with sandy hair cropped really short. He gave us this friendly smile. He wore a bright orange camp tank top, cutoffs, sandals and a leather necklace that held five clay beads with different colors.

The only thing that was really wrong about his appearance was a thick white scar on his face. It ran from benath his right eye, down his cheek and to his jaw – as if someone slashed him with a knife.

"Guys, this is Luke Castellan," Annabeth said, her voice sounding different. I could swear that she was blushing. She caught my glance and her face hardened. "He's your councilor for now."

"For now?" Thalia asked dreamily, her eyes fixed on Luke with a big grin.

"You see, you're undetermined," Luke said patiently. He nodded with a thoughtful look. "They don't know which cabin you're going to beling to so you're here. Cabin eleven welcomes newcomers, all visitors, as we should. Our patron is Hermes, after all, and he's the god of travelers."

I glanced at the section of the floor given to us. It was big enough to contain four sleeping bags and some of our things but if someone else joins the cabin, we'll be crammed. I had nothing to put there to mark my own space, until I realized that Annabeth set down our luggage in there – the stuff we rescued as we escaped the Minotaur's horn. I nervously remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves, and wondered if my things were missing.

I gave the campers a look. Some looked sullen, other suspicious. Some of them had a stupid smile. A few eyed me, as if waiting for a chance to pick my pockets. "How long will we be here?" I asked.

"That's a good question," Luke said. "It will be until you're determined."

"And how long will that take?" Thalia asked dreamily. Yep, one of my best friends is officially smitten with Luke.

The other campers laughed. Annabeth's stormy eyes turned even more stormy if possible. She glanced at us. "Come on, let's go to the volleyball court," she said.

"What? B-but…" Nico began.

"Just – just… come on." Annabeth's hands clamped around my wrist and Nico's. She dragged us out, followed by a still smitten Thalia. Behind us, the kids of cabin eleven were still laughing. We were a few feet away when Annabeth spoke again. "Look, you guys, please do better than that."

"What?" Thalia snapped.

"It was an honest question," I said. "We had no idea about what's going on."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and mumbled, "I can't believe that I thought you could be them."

"What exactly is your problem?" My temper flared up, and I hope Nico didn't restrain me. "All I know is we almost died and I barely killed the bull guy."

"Don't talk like that. Don't you know how many kids here at camp wish that they'd had your chance?"

"Our chance? What chance? To get smashed and killed?" I snapped.

"To fight the Minotaur, you doofus! Why do you think do we train?"

I shook my head, rolling my eyes. "Look, if we really fought the thing known in myths as the Minotaur, the guy from the stories, then there's only one."

"Yes."

"But didn't he die a gajillion years ago?" Thalia butt in. "I think some guy named Termites…"

"Theseus," Nico corrected.

"Yes, Theseus killed him in the labyrinth."

"Thalia, monsters can be killed but they don't die," Annabeth said.

"Oh, right, because that clears everything up," I muttered. "Ow!" Nico elbowed me so hard in the ribs. Ugh.

"We have souls and they don't so they can be disintegrated for a while. If we're lucky, the Minotaur will be gone for a lifetime. But as primal forces called archetypes, they'll eventually reform."

"Like, like, if we killed one by accident with a sword…"

"The Fur – er, your math teacher, right. She's still out there but very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?" Nico asked, arms crossed.

"Your lovely friend talks in her sleep," Annabeth said, giving me an evil smirk.

"Shut up," I told her.

"Anyway, if she's a Fury then she's one of Hades' torturers, right?" Nico pressed on.

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground. What, was she waiting for it to open up and swallow her alive? "Don't call them by name, not even here. We can call them the Kindly Ones if we need to talk about them."

"Can't we say anything about it thundering?" whined Thalia.

"Right, and why do we need to stay in cabin eleven? Everyone is so crowded together," I argued. "There are loads of bunks in there." I pointed to cabins one, two and three.

Annabeth went white. "Percy, you don't just choose a cabin. It all depends on who your parents are, or at least, who your parent is." She paused, waiting for us to understand.

"My mom is Sally Jackson, who used to work in the candy store in Grand Central Station."

"Sorry about your mom, but it's not what I meant. I was talking about your other parent – your dad. What about you, Thalia, Nico? Which parent do you live with?"

"Larissa Grace," Thalia said, making a face. "Former starlet from the eighties, living off the funds that my dad left her with when he disappeared."

"Both my parents are dead, and my sister ran away two years ago," Nico said sadly. "But for all it's worth, I got my family name from my mom."

"What about you, Percy? What happened to your dad?"

"He's dead. Never knew him."

Annabeth sighed, as if used to holding these kinds of conversations with other kids. "Your fathers aren't dead, Percy, Nico. And your dad is still around too, Thalia."

"What? But how can you say that?" Nico moved forward, putting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "Do you know who they are?"

"O-of course not!" Annabeth stepped backward, eyes wide.

"Then how can you say that?"

"Because I know you guys. You wouldn't be here if you weren't like us."

"Like you? You don't even know anything about me, let alone Percy and Nico," countered Thalia.

Annabeth shook her head. "No? Well then, I guess you moved around different schools whenever you got kicked out. Diagnosed with dyslexia? How about ADHD?"

Embarrassed, I said, "Does that have something to do with anything?"

"If you put them together, it's a sure sign. Letters float off the page when you read because your brain is hardwired for ancient Greek. Your ADHD makes you impulsive and unable to sit still because you've got battlefield reflexes. Be thankful when it keeps you alive during a real fight. The attention problems come because you see too much, not too little. You have better senses than a mrotals but the teachers will want you to be medicated. With many teachers posing as monsters, they won't want you to see them for what they really are."

"You make it sound like – like it happened to you before," Thalia noted.

"Yeah, did you go through it?" Nico asked, softening up.

"Hey, most kids here did. If you're not like us, you won't survive your encounter with the Minotaur – and the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar," I said. "Right."

"The food and drink we gave you to make you better? They would've killed a typical kid. Turn your blood to fire and your bones to sand and all that. Just face it. You're a half-blood too."

"A… half-blood." Thalia said slowly.

"Well! A newbie!" A loud, husky voice said. The big girl from ugly red cabin five strode toward us with three girls as big and ugly as her. They were all wearing camo jackets over their orange shirts.

"Clarisse, can't you just go and polish your spear or something?" Annabeth groaned.

"Right, Miss Princess, I can run you through with it on Friday night," the big girl said with a sneer.

"Erre es korakas," barked Annabeth. Somehow, I knew that it was Greek for 'go to the crows', which somehow felt much worse than it sounded. "You won't even stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you – do it with my bare hands." Clarisse's eye twitched, though. I bet she wasn't sure that she could follow through on her threat. She turned toward us. "Who're these runts?"

"Thalia Grace, Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo, meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

"Like, the war god?" I asked.

"Got a problem with that?" Clarisse asked.

"Nah. Just explains the bad smell."

Clarisse growled like a monster. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy, Percy or whatever." She smiled dangerously. "C'mon, I'll show you."

Annabeth looked pained but thankfully stayed out of it. I didn't want her help, since I'm the new kid here who needs to earn his own rep. I handed her my minotaur horn. Before I could do anything else though, Clarisse had me by the neck. His thug friends grabbed Nico and Thalia too. They dragged us to the cinder-block building which served as the bathroom. I kicked and punched all the way but Clarisse had hands like iron.

We got dragged to the girls' bathrooms, with a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. Luckily it was pretty classy, but it kind of smelled. Clarisse's friends were laughing as we flailed around.

"Huh. None of them are Big Three material," Clarisse said, pushing me to the nasty toilet causing the smell. "Right. The Minotaur probably died laughing at them – they look pretty stupid."

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers in horror. "Clarisse…"

We were bent over on our respective toilets, our heads steadily pushed toward the toilet bowl. Mine reeked like rusty pipes and everything that goes into toilets, so I fought to keep my head up. I could see the scummy water and thought that I didn't want to go into that and won't.

I felt this tugging at the pit of my stomach and heard the plumbing rumble. The pipes shuddered, and Clarisse's grip loosened. Water flew straight out of the toilet, arcing over my head. I fell on the bathroom floor with Clarisse screaming. Water blasted out of the other toilets, making the other big girls release my friends. The three arcs of water hit their faces and pushed them down onto their butts.

The water was so strong that it pushed them into shower stalls. I staggered up and helped Nico to his feet. Clarisse struggled, gasping, and the other toilets exploded, blasting them all. The showers also began to spray water on them, spraying them right out of the bathroom, spinning them around and washing them away like the garbage that they are.

Once they were out of the door, the tugging in my gut lessened, and the water shut off instantly. The entire place was dripping wet and flooded – even Annabeth and my friends. They were all dripping wet, standing in the same place and watching me with different appearances of shock.

"P-Percy, you're dry," Nico said.

So of course, I looked down and saw that I was standing on the lone dry spot in the entire place. There was a circle of dry floor around me and not even a drop of water flecked my clothes. "D-did I do that?" I asked.

"Seems like it," Thalia said.

Clarisse and her friends were sprawled outside in the mud, with other campers gawking around them. Her muddy hair was flat across her face. Her camo jacket was a mess and she smelled really bad. She gave me a look of venomous hate. "You're dead, totally dead."

I could have let it go, but I really wanted to do it. "Wanna gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Her friends had to hold her back and drag her to cabin five, with the other campers shuffling away to avoid her flailing feet. Annabeth stared at me – maybe grossed out by my super potty powers or angry at me for giving her the stink bath. "I think you will be a good addition to my capture the flag team."

Of course, like in school, the bathroom incident spread quickly. Campers kept pointing at me and mumbled things like toilet water, or maybe because they were staring at Annabeth, Nico and Thalia who were still soaking wet. Thank goodness, my two friends just found it cool – not weird and gross.

We visited the metal shop – where kids forged their own swords, the arts-and-crafts room – where satyrs sandblasted a marble goat-man state, and the climbing wall. It was pretty cool, made of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava and smashed together if you didn't climb it fast enough.

We eventually reached the canoeing lake, with the trail which led back to the cabins. "I've got training to do. Dinner's at seven-thirty so just follow your cabin to the mess hall," Annabeth said.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth. I didn't mean to do that." Look, I knew it was my fault. I did made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures, but I didn't know how I did it. The toilets responded to me though, like I was some supreme lord of the bathroom and became one with the plumbing.

"But it was so awesome," argued Nico.

"It was." Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You'll need to consult the Oracle."

"Who?"

"Not who, it's what. The Oracle – I'll ask Chiron about it."

I stared at the lake, wishing someone could answer our questions straight for once. I didn't expect anyone to stare right back from the bottom, so I jumped up when I saw two girls sitting at the base of the pier – twenty freaking feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green shirts, with brown hair floating loose around their sholders. Minnows darted in and out of sight. They gave me a pretty smile and waved like I was some long-lost friend. Of course, I waved back.

"Please don't encourage them," groaned Annabeth. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

"Naiads," Thalia said repeatedly. "That's it, I'm going home."

"Don't you get it?" Annabeth frowned. "You are home. For kids just like us, this is the only safe place on earth."

"The only safe place on earth – for mentally disturbed kids?" Nico asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean, not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

I blinked. "Uh, half-human and half-what?"

"I think you know."

I felt something warm and tingly in my limbs, even if I didn't want to admit it. I had a hunch about it. "God – or at least, half-god, right?"

"Then that means my dad isn't dead or didn't abandon us randomly?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, he's one of the Olympians," Annabeth agreed.

"Er, that's crazy," Nico muttered. "But you have a point. Gods did fall in love all over the place and have kids with humans."

"Yeah, they wouldn't change their habits in the last few millenia."

"That means that everyone here are… are…"

"Half-gods – or demigods, that's the official term. We're also known as half-bloods."

"Who's your dad?" I blurted out.

Annabeth's hands tightened on the pier railing, and would've dented it if she had Minotaur-level strength. Her eyes turned dark. I guess I breached some sensitive subject. "My dad is a professor at West Point and haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."

"So, uh, he's human," Thalia mused.

"Naturally. What were you thinking? Male gods aren't the only ones falling in love and having half-mortal kids. That's sexist. I'm from cabin six. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle."

"Our dads?"

"Undetermined, like I said before. Nobody knows. Maybe you three could even be half-siblings – you and Percy look a little alike."

"My mom knew," I blurted out.

"I think she did," Nico agreed.

"I don't know, Percy," Annabeth told me sadly. "Gods don't always reveal who they really are."

"But my dad would've. He loved my mom," I argued.

Annabeth paused, giving me a cautious look. Seemed like she didn't want to uspet me. "Maybe. Your dads might send a sign – which is the only way to know for sure. These signs will claim you as their kids. It happens, sometimes."

Nico looked crestfallen. "You mean, it doesn't happen all the time?"

"Then we'll be stuck in dingy cabin eleven forever," I groaned.

Annabeth sighed. "The gods are gods so they're busy. Sometimes they have loads of kids and forget or don't care about them. We sometimes get ignored."

"Fat lot of change in my life," Thalia said airily. "Stuck in cabin eleven. Huh. Forever."

I remembered the kids from Hermes cabin, sullen teens who looked like they waited for calls that never came. I knew that look. I saw it all the time from kids in Yancy, sent off to boarding school by rich parents who couldn't deal with them. The gods should behave better, though.

"Depends on your powers," Annabeth said. "We have summer-only campers, like the Aphrodite or Demeter kids, who aren't really powerful enough that monsters can ignore you. You'll get by with some summer training and live like a mortal for the rest of the year. Some of us can't leave. It'd be too dangerous, so we're here year-round. We attract monsters who sense and challenge us. They often ignore us until we're old enough to respond – around ten or eleven. After that, most demigods make their way here or die in the way. Some survive outside and become famous. It helps that they don't know their legacy as demigods, but only few are like that."

"So, no monsters here?" I asked.

"No, unless they're stocked in the woods or if someone summons them from the inside. That happens for practice fights and practical jokes. The point is that the borders are sealed – keeps mortals and monsters out. If some mortal looks into our valley, it's just some strawberry farm."

Thalia rubbed her temples. "Monsters, practical jokes, strawberry farms… I'm going crazy."

"Are you a year-rounder?" Nico asked. "This would be better than living with my relatives."

Annabeth nodded, pulling out a leather necklace holding five clay beads with different colors. It looked like Luke's but it also had some gold college ring strung on it. "Been here since the age of seven. Every August – at the very end of the summer session – we get a bead saying that we survived another year. I'm here longer than most counselors, and they're all in college."

"You came young, didn't you?" I looked at the lake again, but the naiads were gone. "Can I walk out of here now if I wanted to?"

"If you're suicidal, then yeah, you could. Just get permission from Mr. D or Chiron – but they won't give that until the end of summer session unless they granted you a quest – which hardly ever happens. The last time… forget it." Annabeth shook her head, as if the last time didn't go well.

I picked up a pebble and turned it around and around. "What's the summer solstice thingy you were talking about when you were feeding me the ambrosia stuff?"

"Summer solstice?" Thalia asked, perking up. "What's that?"

Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "Do you know something?"

"Actually, uh, no." I shrugged. "Back in Yancy though – our old school – I overheard Chiron and Grover talking about something like it, that we didn't have much time because of some deadline. I don't know what it meant but I do know that I hate deadlines."

Annabeth clenched her fists, gazing at the lake distantly. "Wish I knew, too. Chiron and the satyrs know but none of them wants to tell me. There's something bad going on in Olympus and it's pretty big. Last I was there though, things looked pretty normal."

"Uh, you've been to Olympus?" Thalia said in awe.

"Some of the year rounders – with Luke, Clarisse and all the others – took a field trip back in the winter solstice. The gods have their big annual council during that day."

"And how exactly did you get there?"

"The Long Island Railroad, naturally. You get off at Penn Station and go to the Empire State Building – special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She gave us a weird look – as if we should know it already. "You guys are New Yorkers, right?"

"Yeah, for the past three years," Thalia agreed. "Been in LA before that."

"Six years in New York, and Washington before – but my time in there is so murky, I could barely remember it," offered Nico. I remembered him talking about the wrong president and things before, and wondered what could have caused it. "Percy's been in New York all his life."

As far as I could remember, the Empire State Building only had a hundred and to floors. "Oh, sure," I said, deciding not to point it out.

Annabeth gave Nico a curious look before she continued. "The weather started to go weird after we left – almost as if the gods were fighting. I even heard the satyrs talking a couple of times. I heard them talk about something important that was stolen. If this isn't returned by summer solstice, well, things are going to get bad. Real bad."

"Worse than the freak weather and the monsters chasing us to death?" I asked.

"Way worse," Annabeth muttered. "When you guys came, I was hoping that we could… I don't know. Athena can get along pretty well with anybody but Ares – oh, and that rivalry she has with Poseidon. Aside from that though, I was hoping that we could work together, that you might know something that could help."

Nico gave her a sad look. "Sorry, Annabeth. Wish we could help, but we really don't know anything about it."

Annabeth smiled. "That's really sweet, but the only way for me to solve it is to get a quest. I'm not too young – they could tell me the problem."

The smell of barbecue wafted from somewhere nearby. I guess she realized that we're pretty hungry and told us to go on. We left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail – as if she was trying to draw a battle plan.

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**Hello, people who are reading this, I would really appreciate your reviews/comments/suggestions. :)**


	7. We Kneel Because of a Snowflake

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my desktop, my laptop and myself.**

**Meeeet the son of Boreas! Meheheheh.**

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**Chapter 7: We Kneel Because of a Snowflake**

We returned to cabin eleven, where everyone was busy talking and horsing around while waiting for dinner. I didn't really have the time to notice similarities between a lot of the campers before – sharp noses, upturned eyebrows and mischievous smiles, like Luke. If I were a teacher, I would instantly peg them as troublemakers though I'm not one to speak. I've caused loads of trouble in school too.

Nobody paid attention to us as we walked to our spots on the floor and sat down. I still held on the the minotaur horn dejectedly. "Children of gods, huh," I muttered.

"Yeah. Pretty crazy if you ask me," agreed Nico.

Luke, the head counselor, came over with a crazy smile that was marred only by the scar on his right cheek. "Hey," he said, instantly making Thalia blush. "Got you some sleeping bags and stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

I exchanged glances with Nico. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I shrugged and said, "Thanks."

Luke sat with us, pushing his back against the wall. "Had a tough first day, huh?"

"I don't belong here," Thalia said, turning red when Luke gazed at her. "I mean, um, sorry, but I don't believe in gods."

"Right. That's how we all started." Luke's voice took on a bitter tone, which was quite surprising given that he seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He's the type of guy who would be cool and popular anywhere. "It doesn't get better once you do."

"But it just seems too… weird and fantastic and amazing," Nico said. "Your dad is Hermes? Does he really have one thousand attack power and always hits first?"

"Uh, sorry about that," I said, grinning in spite of myself. "Nico is a big fan of Mythomagic."

Luke nodded, as if that settled it. He pulled a switchblade from his back pocket. I flinched, thinking that he might gut Nico. Luckily, he just scraped the mud off the sole of his right sandle. "Uh, yeah. He'd be Hermes."

"Hermes?" Thalia smiled. "The wing-footed messenger guy?"

"Yep. That's him. Messengers, nedicine, travelers, merchants and thieves. Basically anyone who uses the roads. You know, that's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality – or as much of it as we can provide, that is. Hermes isn't exactly picky about his sponsors."

I'm pretty sure that Luke didn't mean to call us nobodies. The poor guy probably just had a lot on his mind. "Ever meet your dad?" I asked.

"Once." Luke's eyes darkened, and I guess it wasn't something he wanted to tell us. I wondered if it had something to do with his scar. He looked up and smiled. "Don't worry about it, okay? The campers here are mostly good people, but you really have to steer clear of cabin five if you value your health. We're extended family, anyway, and we take care of each other."

I felt good. Luke seemed to understand how lost I felt, and it was cool. An older guy like him – even if he was head counselor – should have kept well away from uncool troublemaking middle-schoolers like us. Luke welcomed us into the cabin, though, and even stole some toiletries, which was cool, nice and pretty bad at the same time.

"When Clarisse from Ares cabin tried to bully us, she said something about being 'Big Three' material." Thalia was trying to look smart, but thankfully she was asking the biggest thing that was bothering me all afternoon. "Annabeth looked like she's expecting something from us and said something about the Oracle. What is it all about?"

Luke folded his knife and pocketed it. "I hate prophecies." His face twitched around his scar. "I messed things up for everybody else. Two years ago, I went on a trip to the Garden of the Hesperides and it didn't exactly end nicely. Chiron didn't allow any more quests after that, but Annabeth's dying to get out into the real world. She pestered him so much that he finally ended up telling her that he knew her fate. He had a prophecy from the Oracle but wouldn't tell her or anyone about it. He just said that she's destined to go on a quest but has to wait until some special campers arrived."

"Somebody special. Right." I rolled my eyes.

Luke laughed. "Don't worry about it. Annabeth wants to think that every new camper who comes here is the 'special camper.' She pestered Jools when he arrived here with his protector a couple of weeks ago. Now, come on. It's dinnertime and I'm sure you're hungry."

As if on cue, a horn blew in the distance. I somehow knew it was a conch shell. Not that I've heard one before, of course. "Eleven, fall in!" announced Luke.

The entire cabin consisted of around twenty kids. We filed into the commons yard and lined up in order of seniority. I stood behind a kid in a blue hoodie who had what looked like literally white hair. Behind me was Nico, then Thalia – arranged by age. I was two months older than Nico, who was two months older than Thalia and besides, I was the kid who killed the minotaur. I could see that Thalia wasn't pleased about being dead last, but then again, I wasn't pleased about being more 'senior' than her.

Campers filed out of their own cabins, except for the three empty ones at the end and silver cabin eight, which seemed pretty normal at daytime. Now that the sun was going down, it started to glow like the moon.

The campers marched up the hill, and to the mess hall slash pavilion. Satyrs arrived from the meadow, while naiads rose from the canoeing lake. Girls came out of the woods – like, straight out of the woods. There was this girl who looked around nine or ten. She melted from the side of a nearby maple tree and skipped up the hill. There were around a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs and an assortment of wood nymphs and naiads.

"Amazing, isn't it?" the boy in front of me asked. He looked back as he spoke, and I almost jumped out of my skin.

He was pale, like he was left somewhere outdoors to freeze. Even his lips had a bluish tinge to them. He was around my age but a little shorter than me. His blue hoodie looked kind of stiff too, like it was left in the freezer or out in the snow. He had a strangely regal, distant face that was a little too girly. He smiled, and I noticed his violet eyes. Do people have violet eyes naturally?

"Oh, um, sorry." I rubbed my forehead. "I was just kind of startled."

"Don't worry," he told me. "I get that a lot. Uh, I haven't introduced myself yet, right? I'm Julian Frost, but you can call me Jools. I'm undetermined too, waiting for a sign from my dad or something like the others put it."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Perseus Jackson but please call me Percy if you value your life. These are my friends, Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace."

Thalia gave him a grin. "New here too, huh? Do you feel a little… out of your league?"

Jools shrugged. "I've been on the run for a year before I met a satyr and reached this place." Jools' eyes went distant as we reached the pavilion. "At first I was kind of weirded out but now I've never felt more at home anywhere else."

Torches blazed around the marble columns of the pavilion. A bronze brazier stood in the middle and it was huge – as big as a bathtub. Fire blazed merrily on it. Every cabin had a table that was covered in white cloth that was trimmed in purple. Of course, four of these tables were empty, but the one for cabin eleven was way too overcrowded. Thalia and Nico had to squeeze on to the edge of their benches. I sat beside Thalia, while Nico and Jools sat opposite us.

Grover and the other satyrs sat at table twelve with Mr. D and a pair of plump, blond boys who looked just like him. Chiron stood to one side since he didn't fit on the picnic table. Annabeth was sitting in table six, talking to serious-looking kids who were as athletic as her and had the same signature gray eyes. Behind our table was number five, with Clarisse sitting at its head. She must've gotten over my potty powers, since she was laughing and belching with her friends.

Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor. Everyone fell silent immediately. He raised a glass and said, "To the gods!"

Everyone else raised their glasses and said, "To the gods!" So of course, we imitated them.

Wood nymphs came forward with heaping platters of food like grapes, strawberries, cheese, bread and even barbecue. My glass was empty, so I looked at Jools blankly. Before he could talk, Luke said, "Speak to it. Tell it any drink you want as long as its not alcoholic."

"Cherry Coke." When my glass filled with sparkling caramel-goodness, I smiled. "Blue Cherry Coke." My soda turned into a crazy shade of blue and I smiled. "Perfect."

I drank a toast to my mother, thinking that she's not gone – at least, not permanently. She might be in the Underworld and if it's a real place then I might do something about it someday. I barely realized that I was hungry until Luke handed me a platter of smoked brisket. My friends and I began to load our plates.

"Oh, don't eat yet," Jools said with a knowing smile.

He stood up, and we noticed that everyone else was doing it too. "Desert?" I asked.

"Nah. You'll see. C'mon." He led us to the others, who carried their plates to the fire blazing in the center of the pavilion.

Luke waved us over and I saw that everyone was taking a portion of the meal and dropped it into the fire – the ripest strawberry, juiciest piece of beef, the most buttery roll. "Burnt offerings for the gods," Luke explained. "They like the smell."

"Uh, you're not kiding, right?" Nico asked.

Luke gave us a warning look – as if telling us not to take it lightly. But why would immortal, all-powerful gods like the smell of burning food? He approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat, juicy grapes. "Hermes."

Jools followed. He tossed the ripest strawberries from his plate. "For the gods – and whoever you are, Dad," he muttered. As soon as he said it, the temperature seemed to drop, even if it was a pleasantly warm summer night.

As soon as he left the fire, the temperature went right back to normal. I was next, and wished that I knew what god's name to say. Finally, I bowed my head. "For the gods. And whoever you are, dad, tell me. Please." I scraped a big slice of brisket in the flames, and the smoke turned pleasant. It was nothing like burning food. It was more like hot chocolate, brownies, grilling burgers, wildflowers and many other pleasant things that smelled so great together, I could almost believe that the gods could live off that smoke.

Back on our seats, we began to eat and talk. "So, you've been here for three days?" Nico asked Jools eagerly.

Our new friend nodded. He scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I was here for around twenty-four hours when you guys arrived, I think. A lot of rumors were swirling when you did. Pretty amazing with the minotaur, by the way."

"We just got lucky. My mom wasn't as lucky as us," I grumbled.

"So have you been chased by monsters too?" Thalia asked, luckily changing the subject.

Jools nodded. He rubbed his concealed wrists. "My mom was once a figure skater who met my dad during a vacation in Quebec, Canada. When I was born and my dad left her, she was really upset but tried her best to raise me normally – or as normally as she could. Weird things kept happening since I was around eight or nine."

"So you ran away last year?"

"Yeah." Jools tore into his food moodily until he was finished, then he looked back at us. "Things got so bad that some giant blue monster attacked my mom when we went on that skiing trip. I didn't exactly understand what happened, but there was this avalanche that it caused and…" He shuddered. "Anyway, my mom explained things to me, like she did know that my dad was a god and that she was so confident that nothing would attack me because my dad wasn't 'important enough.'"

"Wasn't important enough?" I asked. "I mean, if your dad wasn't important enough then what are you doing at camp?"

"There are seven kids of minor gods here. Nemesis, Hypnos, those guys. And they're all crammed in Hermes cabin too. I think it means my dad is a minor god, though I'm not as lazy as the two Hypnos kids so I'm pretty sure he's not my dad. So, anyway, my mom promised to explain more when she was out of the hospital and showed me a box that my dad left behind for me. I didn't stay around and wait though. I stole the box and ran away when my mom was sleeping."

"Dude, that was pretty low." Nico whistled. "Have you contacted your mom since then?"

Jools shrugged. "A few letters now and then. I couldn't call her. I learned pretty quickly that demigods and technology don't mix well – pretty much like summoning every monster in the vicinity. So anyway, the box contained this." He pulled up the left sleeve of his hoodie, showing us a plain cuff bracelet made of what looked like silver with a small clear crystal in the center – kind of like a button. He smiled crookedly. "Tomorrow, I'll show you guys exactly what it does."

We eventually finished eating, and Chiron pounded a hoof for silence again. With a sigh, Mr. D stood up. "Well, I suppose I must say hello to you brats. Well, hello. Chiron, our activities director, wants me to tell you that the next capture the flag is on Friday – and that cabin five presently holds the laurels."

There was a bunch of ugly cheering from the Ares table. "What's capture the flag?" muttered Thalia.

"I dunno," Jools replied. "Told you, I've only been here for three days. Luke assured me that it's going to be something fun, though, but with Hermes kids… their idea of fun is often different and a bit too strange."

"Personally, I wouldn't care less, but congratulations," Mr. D said. "Also, I should tell you that we have three campers today – Peter Johnson, Tasha Green and Nero Michaelangelo." Chiron murmured something, and Mr. D corrected himself. "I meant, Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo. Right, hurrah and all that, so run along to your silly campfire now. Go on."

"Nero Michaelangelo?" Nico mouthed as the other campers began to cheer.

"Mr. D always gets names wrong," Luke told us with a cheery smile. "Don't hold it against him."

We followed everyone else to the amphitheater, and Apollo's cabin led a singalong. We sang these cheesy but fun camp songs about the gods and demigods, while we joked around and ate s'mores. For the first time, I felt at home, with my good friends and sharing good times.

By the time we were done singing, I was so tired that I could sleep without realizing it – until the air steadily began to grow colder again. I began to shiver and my teeth chattered. The other campers seemed to notice it too, and Chiron – who was standing guard nearby – seemed uneasy.

"W-what's going on?" Nico said, pulling his jacket sleeves over his hands. "It's so cold!"

"Cold?" Jools raised an eyebrow, looking pretty much like he always did – though now his frozen appearance matched the cold. "I feel pretty fine."

The songs slowed down to a stop as the other campers began to shiver from the sudden, terrifying chill. I hoped I was wearing a jacket like Nico or Thalia, though it's not really my style. My friends and I huddled closer, but Jools seemed to be giving off his own chill, which was weird. He still looked genuinely confused by our reaction.

The campfire, which was slowly curling into the starry sky, was getting smaller at the moment. It was magical, I'm sure, since it changed colors – growing brighter and brighter with our moods. Then, it suddenly flared a pale, pale white and froze.

Froze, as in turned into ice.

There was a pale white glow around us, and when I searched for the source, my eyes stopped on Jools. Our new friend had a startled look as he was looking at something bobbing on his head – a holographic image of a white snowflake. He tried to swat it off, but it bobbed over his head like an irritated fly. Then, it winked out and took the cold with it. All of a sudden, the night was warm again.

"What just happened?" Nico asked.

Chiron did the centaur equivalent of the kneel, though there was a sad look on his face – as if it were only a matter of time before Jools became as bitter as the minor demigods lumped together in the Hermes cabin. The rest of the campers followed, so of course my friends and I kneeled too. "Hail, Julian Frost," our teacher said. "Son of Boreas, God of the North Wind, Herald of Winter."

"The North Wind," Luke echoed. He gave us a look. "That, my new campers, is being claimed by your parent."

When we stood up, Jools still looked confused and sad. "The North Wind? B-but I'm an archer, there must be some mistake."

"Your father has sent a clear sign," Chiron said. "I know not why your scent is as strong as children of the twelve Olympians, but it has been made clear. Your father is Boreas, child."

Luke walked over to Jools and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you're still welcome in Hermes cabin!" He smiled, but I could see sadness – and a bit of anger – behind it. He put a hand on Jools' shoulder, and they led the group of campers back to their cabins.

I trailed a little behind with Nico and Thalia, who were as confused as I was. "That was being claimed?" Thalia asked in horror. "If Jools got claimed by a freaking snowflake, what will we be claimed by? Flaming wombats?"

"No wombats, please," Nico said with a groan. "Though I think you and Percy might be claimed by the same dad. I mean, you look and act a lot like each other."

"Shut up," I said, shuddering at the idea of having Thalia as a sister. "You'd make an awesome brother, though."

"Hey!" complained Thalia.

When we reached cabin eleven, it was so easy to fall asleep. My first day at Camp Half-Blood was both fun and a bit weird, and I wish I got to enjoy my new home much longer.

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**Hey guys! I know that it might feel a bit too... lazy-inducing to type a few letters and click the review button but seriously, it would mean a lot to me! Especially since I need some ideas for the powers of a child of Notus aka the South Wind XD**

**And yeah. I am getting few hits but I do hope that those of you who do read at least give me some feedback T.T**


	8. We Beat Up Uglies

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING BUT JOOLS**

**Sorry for the late upload, life has been... Annoyingly busy.**

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**Chapter 8: We Beat Up Uglies**

The next few days were enough to make me feel like normal again – except for the fact that our lessons were coming from satyrs, nymphs and a centaur. Annabeth taught Thalia, Nico, even Jools and I Ancient Greek, and discussed gods, goddesses and other immortals in the present tense. Okay, it was weird, I must admit, but pretty interesting too. Annabeth was right about our dyslexia too, since Ancient Greek wasn't harder than English for me. I could stumble through some texts without getting a headache after a couple of days.

We rotated through outdoor activities the rest of the day while Jools left for the archery range. The rest of us looked for something we were actually good at. Chiron tried to teach us archery too, and Thalia was pretty good at it. Nico and I were pretty bad, though. At least he didn't complain about desnaging stray arrows from his tail.

Jools even showed us his cuff bracelet again – which had an Ancient Greek inscription – and pressed the crystal. As if by magic, the cuff popped out of his hand and transformed into a silver bow adorned with crystal snowflake patterns. "Wicked, right?" he said with a grin. "Its name is Frostbite."

"But you don't have any arrows," I pointed out.

He grinned and held out his palm. He closed his eyes in concentration. It might be my imagination, but it seemed like silvery frost danced across it, solidifying – and an arrow made of ice appeared on his hand. "It doesn't even melt unless I will it to," he said, aiming and scoring a bull's eye. The arrow disappeared. "Doing it too much makes me tired though, so I need to get a quiver from the armory for real practice. I also redirect arrows with a small – really, really small – gust of wind. I can't do more than redirecting arrows with it since I'm not a son of Zeus or Aeolus or something."

I sucked at foot racing. The wood-nymphs who instructed us left me in the dust. Only Nico could come close to their speed, but they told me not to worry about it. They had centuries of pracice from running away – from lovesick gods and satyrs, that is. It was pretty humiliating to be slower than a tree, though. Thalia was seething.

I don't even want to talk about wresting. Clarisse pulverized us whenever we got on the mat. Oh, and Thalia apparently fried her eyebrows off with an electric touch or something, but I wasn't there to see it for myself, sadly.

I was pretty good at canoeing, which wasn't the kind of heroic skill you would expect from the kid who beat the Minotaur. Well, at least it beats Nico's foot racing skills or Thalia's archery, but none of our skills were something to brag about.

I was sure that the senior campers and counselors kept an eye on us, trying to decide who our dads – or dad, gods forbid – were. None of us had the strength – or ugliness – of the Ares kids. We weren't as good in archery as the Apollo kids or cheat like Jools, the resident Boreas guy. None of us were metalwork experts and great mechanics like the Hephaestus kids. Of course, none of us would be awesome in vine plants like Dionysus' kids or have green thumbs like Demeter's.

"You might be children of Hermes," Luke said. "Jack-of-all-trades, master of none kind of deal – though we're sneakier and we're wily too." He was just probably trying to make us feel better and didn't know what to make of us either.

"Maybe you're Boreas' kids too, or something," Jools said hopefully. "Doesn't look like you've got ice powers though, and you don't look, uh, frozen."

Camp was still fun, though. The morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields and noises from monsters all became facts of life. Whenever I ate dinner with the rest of the cabin and scraped part of the meal into the fire, I tried fo feel some kind of connection from my dad. All I got was the warm feeling, the memory of his smile. It also helped when I didn't think of my mom. The possibility of saving her stayed in the very back of my mind though, worming its way out whenever it could.

I kind of understood Luke's bitterness and why exactly he resented his own father, Hermes. I know that gods had a lot of more important things to do, byt why can't they do something like call, or thunder, or something, like Dionysus and his Diet Coke? At least his kids ate their meals with him. Why can't my dad make a phone appear?

When Thursday afternoon came, three days after we arrived at Camp Half-Blood, we had our first sword-fighting class. The entire cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena with Luke as our instructor.

Even Jools looked a little nervous. "I don't think that I'll do well," he said. "Archers and swords, y'know."

Nico was crazy excited, though. "Swords. Cool!"

Thalia was her usual self. "I can finally smash Clarisse to bits," she said gleefully.

We learned basic stabbing and slashing, and used straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. We were pretty okay – or at least understood what we're supposed to do. Jools did have a bit of trouble like he predicted, and Thalia was having a bit of a hard time too.

We couldn't find blades that matched what we wanted. Jools showed us an icy blue crystal button on the lower part of his cuff which turned it into a silver-hilted, crystal blade sword, though. Still didn't help him. Thalia, Nico and I had to put up with blades that were either too light, too heavy, too long or too short. Luke did his best to fix us up, but he did agree that none of the practice blades worked for us.

We moved to dueling in pairs. Thalia and Nico immediately paired up. Luke announced that he would be my partner, though. Jools shuffled off to be paired with a kid called Chris.

"Good luck," a camper told me with a snicker. "Luke's the best demigod swordsman in the last three hundred years."

"Here's to hoping he'll go easy on me," I said.

Jools and Nico nodded to me as I faced Luke. He showed me numerous techniques the hard way. Every swipe and strike added another bruise to my collection. He whapped me on the flat of his blade mercilessly while calling out instructions and tips to me.

I was soaked in sweat and very, very sore when he called for a break. We alls warmed the drinks cooler, and I gulped down a lot of water. "You doing okay?" Thalia asked.

"Um, no," I told her, showing my new bruise collection.

Jools winced when he saw them. "That doesn't look good."

"It definitely isn't," I agreed.

I saw Luke pour ice water on his head. Of course, I did the same since it seemed like a good idea. As if by magic, I suddenly felt better, the pain in my body gone. My arms felt stronger, and the sword wasn't so awkward anymore. I saw my friends imitate me, but it didn't seem to work well for them. Jools looked more awake, but Nico and Thalia simply shuddered.

"Okay, everyone! Circle up," Luke ordered, before motioning for me to come closer. "If Percy doesn't mind it, I want to give you a little demo."

"Great, let's all watch Percy get pounded!" Thalia joked.

I gave her my best death glare. "Shut it, Lightning Rod." The other kids snickered.

Everyone gathered around Luke and me, suppressing smiles. I guess most of them have been in my shoes before and can't wait to see another kid get pounded in their place. He announced that he had a new disarming technique to teach us, which involved twisting the enemy's blade with the flat of your sword. Apparently, this will give him no other choice aside from dropping his sword.

"It's very difficult, and I've had it used against me." He gave Thalia a long look, and she flushed. "Don't laugh at Percy, most swordsmen need years just to master this technique." He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion, and I did drop my sword. While I picked it up, the other kids began to watch intently. "Now, in real time. We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready?"

I nodded, nervous. I was about to make a fool out of myself in front of my friends and the rest of cabin eleven. Luke came after me, but I managed to keep him from striking my sword hilt. My senses were open in a way that I've never noticed, so I saw every attack coming and countered. I managed to step forward and decided to give the attack a try. I thrusted my blade, but Luke parried it. I saw a change in his face though – his eyes narrowed and he began to strike more forcefully. All of that reminded me that I had a sword that wasn't right for me, and it felt heavy in my hand. It was only a matter of seconds before I made a big mistake, so I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Luke's. Pressing my luck, I twisted and put my whole puny weight into a downward thrust. Luke's sword flew out of his hands and landed against the stones with a clang. The tip of my sword was barely an inch away from his chest.

The other campers went silent, even Thalia. I realized just exactly what I managed to do and lowered my sword. "Sorry," I mumbled.

For a while, Luke was silenced by shock too. Then he broke into the trademark Hermes grin. "Sorry? What in Olympus are you exactly sorry for? By the gods, you should show me that again!"

I didn't want to, really. The sudden energy that surged through me was now totally gone, but Luke insisted and of course, why should I argue? This time though, it didn't take much effort for him once our swords connected. All he did was to hit my hilt and I dropped my sword.

"Beginner's luck?" someone asked.

Luke shook his head and wiped off his sweat. He gave me a look full of interest – like maybe I was something more than a random camper. "Maybe. But I wonder what he could do with a balanced sword…"

That night, we had pizza, bread, cheese and assorted fruits for dinner. I could barely taste it and had to wash it down with blue root beer. I still ate a lot though, since the sword fighting made me really hungry. My entire body ached and all I wanted to do was go to sleep.

Thalia ate glumly, slowly popping strawberries in her mouth and chewing sluggishly. "If that was a basic sword fighting lesson, I don't want to think of how advanced ones would look like."

Nico grinned. "It wasn't so bad." Apparently, not even the class could hinder his cheery nature.

"Yeah, right, you were the one who walloped me throughout the sparring sessions."

"Guys, just – just stop it, okay?" Jools stopped eating, glaring at his plate of half-eaten giant pizza slice. "We're all not that good in sword fighting, and let's leave it at that."

Desperate to change the subject before one of my friends exploded, I pointed to his bracelet. "So, can it do other forms? Like, I don't know, grenade or something?"

"Sadly, no." Jools drank the rest of the white stuff in his cup – he called it Milkis or Milcu or something. "My dad probably didn't expect me to blow up his gift, maybe thought I'd use it forever."

"At least your dad gave you something," Thalia told him darkly.

By Friday afternoon, we tried the climbing wall and barely came out of it alive. Grover even joined us, though he was better. He could jump to the top, kind of like a mountain goat. The rest of us had to fend off the lava and had holey camp shirts as souvenirs. The hairs were even singed from my forearms and part of Nico's eyebrow was burned off.

We sat on the pier by the lake and watched the naiads with their underwater basket weaving. Jools stared at them dreamily. Meanwhile, I asked Grover about his conversation with Mr. D, which made him turn a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he muttered. "Just great."

"Does that mean that you're career's on track?" Thalia asked hopefully, while I quietly explained all about Grover to Jools.

Our goaty friend gave us a nervous look and began to fidget. "He told you that I wanted to get a searcher's license?" he asked.

"Grover, we have no idea about what a searcher's license is," Thalia said, rolling her eyes. "He just told us that you had big plans and needed the credit by completing the keeper assignment thingie. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads dejectedly. "Actually, Mr. D suspended judgement and told me that I hadn't failed – or even succeeded – with you guys yet. Our fates are still tied together so if one of you goes on a quest and I went along to protect you – and we come back alive together – then my job may be considered complete."

"That's not so bad, right?" Jools asked hopefully. "I don't know what a quest is but if you go with them then…"

Grover bleated. "He might as well as transfer me to stable cleaning duty! The chances of a demigod getting a quest, even the three… and even if they did, why would anyone want me along for something as dangerous as that."

"What? But of course we'd want you along," I argued. "You're awesome!"

Grover sighed, eyes on the water. The naiads waved and giggled. "Basket weaving must be a useful skill, huh?"

We tried to reassure him that he had a lot of talents, but the thing is that it made him more miserable. So we talked about canoeing, swordplay and archery for a while. Then we began to discuss the pros and cons of the different gods, and Jools grilled him about Boreas. Finally, I asked about the four empty cabins.

"The silver one, number eight, belongs to Artemis," Grover explained. "She vowed to be a maiden forever so naturally, she has no kids. The cabin is honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad. Sometimes, her hunters come around to visit."

"Oh, okay. But what about the other three at the end?" I insisted. "Are those the Big Three?"

Grover tensed, as if we were talking about a touchy subject. "No, they're not. One of them is Hera's – number two. It's honorary, like Artemis'. She's the goddess of marriage and definitely won't go around having affairs with mortals. That's Zeus' job. When we're talking about the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, sons of Kronos."

"You mean like Zeus, Poseidon and Hades?" Nico asked.

"Right. You know them. When the battle with the Titans was over, they took over the world from their dad, so they drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky. Poseidon had the sea, and Hades received the Underworld – and I don't know why he's upset over that, I think it was a pretty sweet deal," Nico continued.

"Hades doesn't have a cabin here," Jools noted.

"No, and he doesn't have a throne on Olympus too. He kind of does his own thing in the Underworld. I think that if he did have a cabin here… It will either be unpleasant, or reall cool." Grover shrugged. "Let's just leave it at that."

"But did he have kids? And Zeus and Poseidon both had a bazillion kids in the myths, right?" Nico pressed on. "Why are their cabins empty?"

Grover shifted uncomfortably. He gave us a nervous look. "Around sixty years ago, the Big Three made an agreement that they wouldn't sire any more heroes. It was the end of World Warr II. Their children were too powerful and affected the course of human events in bad ways – too much chaos and carnage. World War II was basically just a fight between Poseidon and Zeus demigods on one side, and sons of Hades on the other. Of course, Zeus and Poseidon won, so they forced Hades to swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They even swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed overhead, and we all shuddered. "Isn't that, like, the most serious oath you can make?" Thalia asked nervously. She kept looking at the sky.

"So, um, the brothers kept their word?" I asked. "No more kids?"

Grover's face darkened. "I don't know what happened, exactly, since I was away back then. There was his girl called Clio Knight, daughter of Zeus, around five years ago. Well, the River Styx is serious about promises. I guess Zeus got off easy since he's immortal, but the girl…"

"But that's not fair! It wasn't the girl's fault."

Grover hesitated. "Percy, the children of the Big Three are more powerful than any other half-blood. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about Clio, he wasn't too happy that Zeus broke his oath, so he let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment the kid. So a satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but even he could barely do anything about it. Gleeson did his best to escort her here with two more half-bloods that she'd befriended, like he did when he brought Clarisse here."

Jools sat up straight. "Gleeson. You don't mean Gleeson Hedge, right?" he asked, eyes wide. "He's the satyr who escorted me here too, and let me tell you, if even his violence and goat-fu skills couldn't save the girl, then no one can. He's seriously awesome."

"I know, I told you, the worst monsters were let out of Tartarus," Grover said. "They almost made it too. They got all the way to the top of that hill, all of them injured, battered and near death." He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree were we fended off the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones led the chase, followed by a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun too, but Clio told the satyr to save the two half-bloods. She held off the monsters and made her final stand there. Gleeson didn't want to live her – gods of Olympus, he's the most violent satyr I know – but he couldn't change her mind and he had to protect the others too. One of them was barely seven!"

"What happened to her?" Thalia asked in a low voice. I imagined her in Clio's place, and I was pretty sure that she would've done the same for us in a heartbeat. I hoped it never happened. Though we fought a lot, she's still one of my best friends. Besides, I wouldn't wish for it to happen to anyone, not even Clarisse.

"Clio died alone, at the top of that hill. Her dad, Zeus, took pity on her and transformed her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley, way better than it was before. It's the reason why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

I stared at the pine tree, feeling hollow and guilty. A girl my age sacrificed herself to save her friends by facing a whole army of monsters. I barely survived my fight with the Minotaur, and that fight didn't seem like much compared to her sacrifice. I wondered if I could have changed things by acting differently – if maybe, just maybe, I could have saved my mother.

"Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?" I asked.

"Sometimes. It's really rare, though." Grover shrugged. "Orpheus, Hercules, Houdini…"

"Percy? What are you thinking?" Thalia asked sadly.

"Have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" I continued.

"No, never. Hercules had to save living people. Orpheus almost did, but Percy, you can't seriously be thinking of going there to do that!"

"No," I lied. "I was just wondering about it, if those myths were actually true too. So anyway, a satyr is always assigned to guard demigods?"

Grover gave me a weird look, like he wasn't really persuaded. "Not really, but we go undercover to a lot of schools."

"Oh, yeah!" Jools chuckled. He winked and waved to a couple of naiads who blew him bubbly kisses. "Hedge told me about a couple of times that he worked as a gym teacher and a baseball coach."

Grover nodded. "We try to sniff out the half-bloods, especially those who might make great heroes and are very vulnerable to monster attacks. If we find ones with strong auras, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. Of course, he tries to keep an eye on them. They could cause a lot of huge problems."

"And you found… one of us," I said.

"So, which is it?" Thalia said. "Who has the strong scent?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Grover said. He looked like we just led him into a trap or something. "You all have equal auras. Besides, if any of you were special, you'd never even be allowed on a quest so I'd never get my license. You might be Hermes' kids, or maybe one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, goddess of revenge. Don't worry."

"Or you might be children of Boreas, since you don't look like the children of Hermes," offered Jools. "I mean, gods, I'd like to have a sibling or something. Sucks being an only child on both sides."

"Might not be so bad, being your brother," I said, "but I don't think you'd like to be related to someone with potty powers. Maybe my dad is the toilet god or something."

"I've got a sister," Nico said sadly. "She ran away when she was twelve. Do you think she's a demigod too?"

"And I've got a twin brother, Jason." Thalia's eyes hardened suddenly, as if the memory pained her. I only heard of her talk of a missing brother once, and it was just fleeting. I knew she didn't want to talk about it. "He ran away with a cousin when we were ten. Actually, nobody knows what happened but that's why my mom started drinking again."

All wrapped up in our own thoughts, we fell quiet. By the time we returned to cabin eleven, it was almost dinner.

Right after eating, there was a lot more excitement than usual. The kids were talking about capture the flag all throughout dinner, but nobody wanted to explain. I knew about typical capture the flag games, but Luke assured us that it would be much different.

"Maybe the flags are satyrs," Thalia offered.

"Of course not, that would be crazy," Jools said, though his eyes did have a pretty crazy glint. "Maybe we'll do something extreme!"

In a way, he was right.

When the plates cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood by our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two other blond kids from her cabin ran into the pavillion, carrying a beautiful silk banner. It was maybe ten feet long and glistened gray. The painting of a barn own above an olive tree was its only decoration. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and two of her beefy siblings ran in with another silk banner of the same size. It was a vivid red, painted with a bloody spear and boar's head.

"Please don't tell me those are the flags," I said.

"What? Of course they are," Luke said with a frown.

"Do Ares and Athena always lead the teams? Does this mean I get to pound Clarisse?" Thalia asked.

"It's not always them, but often. And no, I don't think you'll get to beat her up."

"So what happens if another cabin captures one? Do we repaint the flag?" I asked.

"You'll see. First, we get to have one."

"What? But whose side are we on?"

Luke gave us a sly look that made him look really mischievous. His scar made him look almost evil in the flickering torchlight. "We have a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares, and you guys are going to help."

Before any of us could tak, the teams were announced. Athena had an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins, in exchange for privileges like shower times, chore schedules, activity slots and others for their support. Ares was allied with everybody else. Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite and Hephaestus.

The sons of Dionysus were pretty good athletes, but there were only two. Demeter's kids had nature and outdoor skills, and they can even make plants grow fast, but they're not an aggressive bunch. Aphrodite's kids weren't a problem, since they just sat out every activity and gossiped while looking at their reflections. Their head counselor, Silena Beauregard, was pretty smart though, so we might have to look out for her. Hephaestus' kids, led by a guy called Charles Beckendorf, weren't a good-looking bunch, and there were only four of them. They were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day, though, and could make pretty much anything. Then, of course, we have Ares' cabin – twelve of the biggst, ugliest, meanest kids in the universe.

That wasn't exactly reassuring.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he called out, though I don't think I felt pretty heroic. "You know the rules. The boundary line is the creek, and the entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. Display your banners prominently, and have no more than two guards. Disarm prisoners, but don't bind or gag them, understand? Killing and maiming is forbidden, naturally. I will be your referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" He spread his hands, and the tables were filled with equipment like helmets, swords, spears, and shields.

"Um, that's a lot," Nico said, which was pretty obvious.

Thalia picked up a dented helm in distaste. "We're supposed to be using these?"

"Unlike Jools here, you didn't get weapons from your parents, nor armor. So yeah, unless you want to get skewered by your cabin five buddies. Here, Chiron thinks you four will fit in these. You'll be on border patrol."

We had shields the size of NBA backboards with a caduceus painted in the middle. It was really heavy and would have made a fine snowboard for Jools mom, but I don't think I could run fast wih it. Athena's side wore helmets with a blue horsehair plume, while the other team had red ones.

"Blue team, forward!" Annabeth yelled.

We cheered and shook our swords impressively – even Jools, since Frostbite was in sword form. We followed Annabeth down the path to the south woods while the red team headed north – yelling taunts at us all the way.

We caught up to Annabeth. Jools raised a hand to her in greeting. "Hey, hey," he said with a crooked grin. "You're the boss, right? Gosh, you're pretty!" In the few days we've known him, he tried to hit on every female in camp, be they naiad, nymph or demigod.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Go hit on the naiads or something," she said with a groan.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked. "Do you have a magic item to loan us or something."

Her hand flew to her pocket, as if she was scared that we might steal something, which Hermes' kids loved to do. The Stoll brothers were the most notorious, from what I've heard. Anyway, Annabeth gave us a scary look. I flinched, but Nico blushed and grinned at her goofily. "Just watch out for Clarisse's spear, you don't want it touching you. Don't worry, okay? We'll take the banner from Ares. Did Luke tell you your job?"

"What's border patrol for?" Thalia asked.

"Easy. Stand by the creek, patrol it. Keep the reds away and leave the rest to us. Athena always has a plan." She pulled down the visor of her owl helmet and ran off, leaving us.

"If she thinks I can use my potty powers in the creek…" I said quietly.

"I can freeze it or something," Jools said uncertainly. For a while, his laid back look was replaced by doubt. "I haven't tried it before, I've always stuck to a few drops of water."

"So you have more ice powers than those arrows?" I asked.

"A little. I kind of discovered them while running from some harpies when I met Hedge. It's nothing to brag about, really. Just really small icicles and the like. Not even enough to kill monsters."

The night was warm and sticky, though staying close to a son of Boreas kept us feeling significantly colder. He was cool that way. The woods were dark – too dark. Fireflies fluttered around the place. Annabeth stationed us next to this little creek that gurgled over glistening rocks, before the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

We stood there quietly. I felt stupid with my oversized helmet and huge shield. My sword felt wrong, like every other glowing bronze blades that I've tried. The leather grip was pulling on my hand, kind of like a bowling ball. Nearby, Jools stood under a tree, eyes on the creek, as if thinking of how he could freeze it if he had to. His crystal blade shimmered in the darkness. Thalia stood a little behind, balancing herself on a boulder to see our surroundings better. She hefted her too-short sword uncomfortably.

Nico was right beside me with his too-long sword that was longer than his arm. "Nobody would actually atack us, right?" he asked me.

"I don't know, but won't Olympus have some liablility issues or something?" I told him with a grin. Behind us, Thalia snorted. "Shut it, Lightning Rod."

The conch horn lew again, and I heard campers whooping and yelling all around the woods, coupled with clanking metal and kids fighting. An ally from Apollo's cabin darted past us, as swift as a deer. He leaped over the creek and disappeared into the enemy territory.

"I'd give anything to join them," Jools said wistfully. "Scouting, shooting enemies from afar, it would be fun. But I'm just a good archer, not as excellent as Apollo's kids."

"Have you tried other things with your powers?" Nico asked.

"Yeah. Can't do anything but redirect my arrows, and I can't do anything in enclosed spaces like buildings."

We fell quiet as we heard a low canine growl close by. The sound chilled me to the core, and I shuddered. I raised my shield and we all moved together. I was sure that we were in danger. The growling suddenly stopped, as if the strange presence retreated.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Eight Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. "Cream those punks!" Clarisse was yelling. I could see her ugly pig eyes glaring at us through the slits of her helmet. She brandished her five-foot-long spear, and its barbed metal tip flickered with red light.

I could see the standard-issue bronze swords that her siblings brought, but that didn't reassure me at all.

Before anyone else could do anything, they charged across the stream. Nobody was around to help us, and I didn't think that we could run away from big, strong, athletic kids. We had to defend ourselves against more than half the Ares cabin.

I could barely see what was happening to my friend, since I had to sidestep someone's swinging sword. They were seasoned warriors though, so sadly they still aren't as stupid as the Minotaur. We were surrounded quickly, and Clarisse thrust her spear at me. My shield deflected it but my entire body tingled painfully. My hair stood on end, and my shield arm went numb. It felt like the air was burning.

"An electric spear?" Nico yelped.

Swords raised, we began to fall back. They slammed us with their sword butts, and Nico hit the dirt. They laughed at us. One of them grabbed Nico. "Cut his hair," Clarisse ordered. "We could at least make him look less stupid."

Jools growled angrily. Thalia raised her sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear. Blue and red sparks flew, but for some reason, my friend was unharmed. "The flag is that way," she growled, shoving Clarisse over.

Clarisse shoved her too, and she fell down. "See, we don't care about the flag. We care about the kids who made our cabin look stupid."

"You can do that without our help," I said, which probably wasn't smart.

They came at us, and we backed up toward the creek. I tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was fast even if she was huge. Her spear struck me in the ribs, which would've skewered me if I didn't have an armored breastplate. The electric point almost shocked my teeth out of my mouth. Another kid slashed his sword across my arm, and the blood made me dizzy.

"Hey, man, no maiming!" barked Jools, though he looked as scared as us.

"Whoops," the camper said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

I could barely see my friends trying to fend off the enemy campers when the big guy pushed me into the creek and landed with a splash. I was afraid that they would kill us horribly, but something happened. The water woke up my senses, as if I ate an entire bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans. Clarisse and another camper came into the creek to get me, but I stood up to meet them. I swung the flat of my sword against a guy's head, knocking his helmet clean off. I slammed him in the face with my shield and knocked him out.

Nearby, my other friends worked together, as if they trained for it their whole lives. Jools splashed water from the creek, turning it into ice cubes that shot toward the Ares campers, while Thalia swung her sword around nervously, blue electricity running down its blade. Nico stood a little behind, eyes closed. The ground around him seemed to churn angrily, trapping two kids' feet. Thalia and Jools knocked them out with their sword butts while they were busy trying to dodge the electricity and the ice cubes.

Clarisse charged at me, her spear crackling with red electricity. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft right between the edge of my shield and my sword, snapping it like a twig. "You idiotic, corpse-breath worm!" she roared. Ibet she would've said something worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my s word-butt. She stumbled backward, out of the creek.

Someone yelled, and kids yelled in excitement. Luke raced toward the boundary line, the red team's banner lifted high and proud. He was flanked by two of his brothers, who were covering his retreat. Three Apollo campers were shooting trick arrows at the Hephaestus kids. The Ares campers got up, with Clarisse cursing dizzily.

"It was a trick!" she suddenly shrieked.

They staggered after look, but too late. Everyone converged on the creek and Luke crossed the boundary. Our side exploded into cheers, and the red banner began to shimmer. It turned silver, with the image of a huge caduceus – cabin eleven and Hermes' symbol. Our team picked up luke and carried him around on their shoulders, cheering. Chiron trotted out of the woods and blew his conch horn.

"We won!" they kept chanting happily.

Annabeth's voice suddenly piped up right next to me in the creek. "Not bad, hero." I couldn't see here there, thogh. "Where exactly did you guys learn to fight like that?" The air shimmered, and she appeared. She was holding a Yankees baseball cap, like she just took it off her head.

I was angry, and I didn't even feel the shock of her being invisible. Before I could talk, though, Thalia stalked toward her angrily. "You set us up, Wise Girl," she growled. "You put us here, knowing Clarisse would come after us, and sent Luke to get the banner."

"You set us up," I repeated. "Had it all figured out, did you?"

"Athena always, always has a plan." Annabeth shrugged.

Jools and Nico converged on her too, arms crossed. "A plan to get us puvlerized. If the fighting didn't force us to learn more about our powers…" Nico shuddered.

"I tried to come as fast as I could. I was going to jump in, but you guys were doing just fine." She noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I muttered. "What else?"

"No, Percy, it was a sword cut," Jools said, eyes wide.

The blood was gone, and the cut was just a long white scratch that also faded. It turned into a small scar before disappearing. "I don't get it."

Annabeth was thinking so hard that I could almost see the gears turning in her head. She looked down at my feet, then Clarisse's broken spear. "Step out of the water."

I glanced at my friends, who nodded. I came out of the creek and tiredness washed over my body. My shield arm went numb, and all the energy in my body left my. I almost fell over, but Nico and Jools steadied me. "You okay, man?" Jools asked.

"I don't know," I muttered.

"Oh Styx, this is not good." She looked at the others. "This is so not good at all."

Before I could ask, the canine growl started again, this time much closer than before – and it was joined by two others. A loud howl penetrated the gloom in the forest. The cheering stopped, and Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek about standing ready and his bow. We all drew our weapons. On the rock just above us was a massive black hound. When I say massive, I mean the size of a rhino, with blood-red eyes and blade-like fangs. Two others joined it, and they were looking straight at us.

"No!"

Annabeth tried to step toward them, but the hounds were fast. They leapt, like massive, toothy shadows. One landed on top of me, while the other two were right in front of Thalia and Nico. I stumbled backward, feeling its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor. I vaguely saw Annabeth and Jools charge toward the other two monsters. There was a cascade of thwacking sounds, kind of like forty pieces of paper ripping one after the other.

The monster fell dead at my feet. The other two lay dead nearby too. My friends were okay though Jools was sporting a cut across his cheek. Electricity zipped around Thalia's hands, while the ground churned around Nico.

I was still alive – which was probably some kind of freak miracle. I didn't want to look down to the ruins of my armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I was sure that I was badly injured. If they waited for another second, I would have been dead, and my friends would've gone the same way. Chiron trotted next to us, bow in hand. His face was grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth was pale, her hand tightly gripping her sword. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. T-They don't… they're not…"

"Someone summoned it here," Chiron told her grimly. "Someone inside the camp."

"Practical joke?" Jools asked hesitantly as Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten.

Clarisse snarled, "It's all Percy's fault! He must have summoned it!"

"Quiet, child," Chiron said. The bodies of the hellhounds melted into the shadows, passing right through the ground until it disappeared. "This is more than a practical joke."

Annabeth stared at me. "You're wounded. Get in the water."

"What? But I'm okay," I told her.

Nico frowned. "No, you're not."

Annabeth put a hand on my shoulder. "Chiron, watch this."

I let her guide me into the creek. I was too tired to argue with her. The whole camp gathered around me. Good thing I felt better instantly. The cuts on my chest began to close up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Potty powers?" Thalia said.

Before I could reply, I felt a sea-green glow above my head. I looked up and saw a hologram of green light that spun and gleamed. It as a three-tipped spear, or a trident. A few seconds later, it disappeared a blue hologram of a cartoon lightning bolt shimmered above Thalia's head. A dark violet skull flared to life above Nico.

Nobody spoke for a few seconds.

"Your fathers…" Annabeth shook her head. "This is so not good."

Campers started kneeling, bowing their heads. The Ares cabin didn't look to happy about it, thouh.

"Hail, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Lord of the Seas," Chiron began. "Hail, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, King of the Gods, Father of Olympus, Lord of the Sky. Hail, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, the Unseen, God of Riches and Lord of the Underworld."

"This is so not good," Annabeth repeated nearby.

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**Reviews don't hurt, okay? Don't be shy, I do appreciate them!**


	9. We Get the Quest of Death

**Disclaimer: The wonderful world of Percy Jackson belongs to great master Rick Riordan.**

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**Chapter 9: We Get the Quest of Death**

The next morning, Thalia and I were moved to our own cabins. I was ushered into cabin three, while Thalia obviously wasn't pleased about being moved to cabin one. I didn't have to share a crowded cabin with anymore, and had plenty of room for the stuff I have left: my luggage from the trip to Montauk, the Minotaur's home, a brand new orange camp shirt and a toiletry bag. I got to sit on my own dinner table, pick my activities, call "lights out" when I wanted to and not listen to anybody else.

I was absolutely miserable, and whenever I looked at table one during meals, I knew that Thalia wasn't a happy camper either. At least Nico still got to stay in cabin eleven since Hades' kids don't have a cabin of their own. But aside from Jools, everyone else avoided him like the plague. Thalia and I were separated like we had a rare disease.

Of course, nobody wanted to mention the hellhound to our faces, but I'm also pretty sure that they were talking about it behind our backs. Jools once overheard Chris Rodriguez from cabin eleven telling his half-brother, Connor Stoll about feeling unsafe. He probably wasn't the only one. I have a feeling that the attack scared everybody. It sent two messages. One, we were the children of the Big Three, and two, monsters would do everything to kill us – even invade a "safe" camp.

Campers steered clear of us – and Jools, by association. The rest of cabin eleven were to nervous to have sword class with us, especially after hearing about what I've done to the Ares campers in the woods. Luke still gave us one-on-one lessons, pushing us harder than ever. Sadly, that also meant that he wasn't afraid to give us new bruises.

"You guys will need all the training that you can get," he explained, while we worked on swords and flaming torches.

Annabeth still taught us Greek in the mornings with Jools, but she was always distracted. Every time one of us said something, she would scowl like we poked her between the eyes. She was especially irritable when I was the one who spoke.

She always walked away muttering after our lessons. "Quest… Poseidon and Hades? Dirty rotten… Plan…"

Clarisse also kept her distance, which was the only good thing. The bad thing is that she still shot us venomous looks, especially me. She probably wanted to strangle me to death for breaking her magic spear. I half-wished that she would yell or punch me or something. Getting into fights was better than being ignored.

Somebody at camp resented us – or at least me. I'm sure of that. One night as I came into my cabin, I found a mortal newspaper right inside the doorway. It was a copy of _New York Daily News_ and it was opened to the Metro page. There was an article there that took me an hour to read. Hey, cut me some slack, the words floated around the page even more when I was angry.

Want to know what it was about?

Someone discovered Gabe's destroyed Camaro and now we're reported missing. Oh, and Smelly Gabe called me a troubled child who was kicked out of boarding schools and had a violent streak. Of course, now I'm kind of a suspect in my mom's disappearance. There was a hotline provided so that they could call in if they had information on us, and the number was circled in black marker.

I was seething and miserable. I crumpled the paper, threw it away, and flopped down on my bunk bed, right in the middle of the cabin. I called lights out.

Of course, things did get worse, starting with the dream I had. I was running along the beach in a storm – a really bad one, with the wind slowing me down. There was a city behind me, but it wasn't New York. It was different, with buildings spread farther apart. I could see palm trees and low hills in the distance.

Two men were fighting a hundred yards down the surf. They were kind of like the wrestlers I used to watch on TV – big, beefy, with beards and long hair. They wore Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue and the other in green. They grappled, wrestled, kicked and head-butted each other angrily. Whenever they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker and the wind rose to terrifying strength.

It felt like I had to stop them for some reason. I tried to run harder but the wind kept blowing me back. In the end, I was running in place with my heels digging uselessly in the sand. I could barely hear the two men yelling "Give it back!" to each other, kind of like kindergartners fighting over their toys.

The waves grew and crashed into the beach. I was sprayed with salt. "Stop it," I tried to yell. "Stop fighting!" The ground shook.

Somewhere under the earth came a terrifying laughter, and a voice so deep and evil, it felt like my blood was freezing. "Come down, little hero. Come down!"

The sand began to split between me, creating a crack on the earth. I was standing before a crevice that shot straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped. I barely had time to scream before I fell and the darkness swallowed me.

I woke up, still sure that I was falling – but no. I was on my bed in cabin three. Though I was sure that it was morning, it was too dark outside with thunder rolling across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that, at least. There was a clopping sound at the door, and a hoof knocked on the threshold.

"Uh, come in?" I said, standing up.

Grover trotted inside with a groggy-looking Thalia and Nico, who looked like he just rolled out of bed. "Mr. D wants to see you guys."

"Why?"

"Probably want to kill us," Nico squeaked.

"Don't say that," barked Thalia, though her face was pale and terrified.

Grover looked grim. "I better let him tell you. We'll wait outside."

They left me to get dressed, so I pulled on my favorite jeans and my brand new camp shirt. I thought of the brewing storm and pulled on my green hoodie to stay warm. I was sure that I was in huge trouble, but it wouldn't hurt to at least look a little better than usual. I laced on my combat boots – just in case I had to run away fast.

Okay, I was actually dreading this for days. Now that we were declared children of the Big Three – who weren't supposed to have kids – I was sure that simply being alive was now a crime. They gods must've debated the best way to punish us, and now Mr. D was about to deliver the verdict.

The sky over Long Island Sound was like boiling, churning ink soup. Rain was headed for our direction. "Are you sure that we don't need an umbrella?" I asked.

"Nah. It never rains here unless we want it to." Grover shrugged, still nervous.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Right. What the heck is that storm?"

Grover looked uneasy. "It'll pass around us, like bad weather always does."

He was right. In the week that we'd been in camp, the place had never even been overcast. Not even once. The few rain clouds that passed by simply skirted ar ound the fringe of the valley. This was a huge storm, though. It made me feel uncomfortable.

Apollo's kids were playing a game in the volleyball pit with some younger satyrs. Dionysus' twins were doing their thing again, making the nearby plants grow. Business is as usual in Camp Half-Blood, but everyone looked tense. Eyes were drawn to the impending storm.

Nico shuddered. "This doesn't feel right," he murmured.

We walked up the front porch of the Big House, where Dionysus sat by the pinochle table. Just like in our first day, he was dressed in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt and had a Diet Coke in hand. Chiron was in his fake wheelchair, sitting across the table. They played against two invisible opponents who held two sets of cards in the air.

Mr. D didn't even look up from his game. "Well, well, well. Our little celebrities." When one of us responded, he rolled his eyes. "Come closer. Don't expect me to kowtow you, mortals, just because one of you is my half-sister. And don't even get me started on Barnacle Beard and Death Breath's sons."

Lightning flashed across the clouds, and thunder shook the windows of the Big House. Chiron pretended to be over-interested in his pinochle cards while Grover cowered by the railing. His hooves clopped back and forth.

"Blah, blah, blah. If I had my way, I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. Then we only have to sweep up ashes and be done with trouble. Apparently, Chiron thinks that it's against my mission in this cursed camps to keep you brats safe from harm."

Chiron finally looked up from his cards. "Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm," he said placidly.

"Nonsense, they won't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I have agreed to resrain myself. I might turn you to dolphins instead. At least one of you can be sent back to his father." Dionysus glared at me pointedly."

"Mr. D…" Chiron took on a warning tone. "Remember the rules."

"Oh, all right. There's one more option, but it's foolishness." Dionysus stood up, making the invisible players' cards drop to the table in a neat pile. "I'm off to Olympus for our emergency meeting. I'll turn them into Atlantic bottlenoses if they're still here when I get back. Understand? And demigods, if you're smart at all, believe me when I say that it is a better choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Our camp director picked up a playing card and twisted it, making it transform into a plastic rectangle. At first, I thought it was a credit card, until I realized that it was a security pass. Dionysus snapped his fingers and the air seemed to fold and bend around him. He turned into a hologram, then became sort of see-through, then he was gone, leaving only a faint scent of fresh-pressed grapes.

Chiron smiled tiredly and pointed to the four empty chairs. "Please, take a seat." We all did, and he laid his cards on the table – a winning hand that he didn't get to use. "Tell me. What did you make of the hellhound?"

Across the table from me, Thalia shuddered. Chiron probably expected us to say something really brave, but she said, "It scared me."

"Yeah," I agreed. "We'd be dead if you didn't shoot."

Nico nodded. "Thank you by the way, Mr. Brunner – Chiron."

"You will meet worse creatures. Far, far worse, before you are done with your quest." Chiron's eyes darkened. "Will you accept it?"

"Uh, sir?" My eyes roamed to Grover, who was crossing his fingers. "You haven't even told us what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "The details are the hard part," he said.

The loud peals of thunder rumbled across the entire vally. At the edge of the beach, storm clouds began to brew. It was like the sky and the sea were boiling together, locked in some kind of ancient battle.

"Poseidon and Zeus," I began. "They're fighting over something valuable that got stolen, right?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks. The old centaur sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know about that, Percy?"

I turned red, feeling my friends gazing at me. Me and my big mouth. "First, uh, the weather since Christmas has been really weird. It's like the sea and the sky are fighting. When I talked to Annabeth, she said that she overheard something about theft. I've also been having these dreams."

"Knew it," Grover said.

"Dreams?" Thalia asked with a frown.

"Hush, Grover," Chiron ordered.

My satyr friend's eyes brightened in excitement. "But it probably is his quest! It must be! Nico, Thalia, you didn't get dreams, right?"

Nico gulped. "Um, no. Should we?"

Chiron stroked his bristly beard with a thoughtful look on his face. "Grover, only the Oracle can determine. But Percy, you are correct. Your father, and Thalia's father, are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They're fighting over two valuable things that were stolen – a trident and a lightning bolt."

"A trident and a what?" I asked with a nervous laugh.

"A lightning bolt, dummy," hissed Thalia.

The centaur gave us a dark look. "Don't take the situation lightly. This lightning bolt isn't the tinfoil-covered zigzag that you see in second-grade plays. It's a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade Celestial Bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives. And the trident is a seven-foot-long weapon, also made of pure Celestial Bronze and imbued with the power of the sea. Zeus' master bolt and Poseidon's trident are the symbols of their powers. In fact, the master bolt is where all other lightning bolts are patterned. It's the first weapon that the Elder Cyclopes created for the war against the Titans. It's powerful enough to sheer off the top of Mount Etna, and hurled Kronos from his throne. With it, mortal hydrogen bombs are like firecrackers."

"So, the master bolt and the trident, they're both missing?"

"Stolen. And don't get me started on the trident itself, it is powerful enough to cause tsunamis that could submerge the whole world in water."

"But…" Nico frowned. "Who could steal something like that?"

"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By one of you, or even all three of you. At least, that's what they think. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, the brothers had their usual arguments about the spectacularness of their disasters, Rhea's favoritism and the likes. Afterward, they realized that their weapons were missing – taken from the throne room right under their very noses. They immediately blamed each other. A god cannot take another god's symbol of power directly – it is forbidden in the most ancient divine laws. But both of them are convinced that the other convinced a human hero to take it."

I blinked. "So Zeus blames me, and Poseidon blames Thalia? But what about Nico? Doesn't that mean that he's in the clear?"

"But we didn't do anything," argued Thalia.

Chiron rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Patience. Please, listen. They have good reasons to be suspicious, especially since their rivalry spans millenia. Now they both openly claimed you as their children, and you were both in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. They both believe that they have found their thieves."

"But I've never been to Olympus," I said.

Thalia nodded earnestly. "They must be crazy!"

Chiron and Grover both glanced up at the sky nervously. The clouds didn't part around the valley as Grover promised. They were steadily blanketing the area, sealing us like a coffin lid. I shuddered. The sea began to churn angrily, as if trying to cough up a massive tidal wave that could destroy the camp.

"We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky – or the Lord of the Seas." Grover began to shake in sheer terror.

"Perhaps, paranoid. Of course, both gods deny the theft. They have both been offended by the accusations of theft and of feigning thedisappearance of their own symbols of power. They have argued back and forth for months, threatening war. Now, both of you come along – and it was the last straw for both gods."

Nico shot us a concerned look. "But… kids? They would blame kids for their mess?"

"It would put a twist to their toga, knowing that their rivals suddenly admitted that they broke the sacred oath that they took after World War II, fathering mortal heroes, children that could be used as weapons against their rival gods. Things are worse, and they're blaming each other for it. But since Percy is four months older… Poseidon broke it first."

I sighed. "But we didn't do anything. Our dads didn't have the other weapon stolen, right?" I asked.

Chiron nodded. "It is not their style, but they are both too proud to convince the other of that. They both demand that their weapons must be returned by the summer solstice – June twenty-first, ten days from now. They are also demanding apologies for being blamed as thieves on the same date. We all hoped that diplomacy might work – maybe Hera, Demeter or even Hestia could make their brothers see sense. Your reveal has inflamed their angers, though, and now neither god wants to back down."

"Not wanting to back down is bad, right?"

"Correct. Unless someone intervenes, unless the two weapons are returned to their owners before the solstice, there will be war. Do you know what full-fledged war would look like?"

"That would be… bad." Thalia hunched over, deep in thought. Maybe she was thinking of who stole the weapons – of who could possibly set things up so that our fathers would argue.

"Imagine the whole world in chaos – of nature at war with itself. Olympians will be forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. There will be destruction, carnage, and millions dead. The entire Western civilization will become a big battleground that will make the Trojan War look like a simple water-balloon fight."

"Yep. Totally bad." Thalia began to rub her forehead.

"And you, Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace, will be the first to feel the wrath of the Olympians."

It started to rain really hard. The volleyball players stopped their game and looked up at the sky in stunned silence. One of the satyrs began to shake uncontrollably.

We brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Two gods were punishing the camp because of Thalia and me. I didn't know if I was more furious at Zeus or at Poseidon. "We'll have to find the stupid bolt and that trident, and return it to the owners."

"What better peace offering, than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus' bolt, and the daughter of Zeus return Poseidon's trident?"

"But if neither of them have it, then where are they?" Nico asked. Good point.

"Oh, I believe you know," Chiron murmured grimly. He peered at Nico in concern. "Part of the prophecy I had years ago… Well, it seems like parts of the liens are now making sense, but before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. One of you must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"What? But can't you just tell us where the bolt is beforehand?" I asked.

"If I did, you might be too afraid to accept the challenge."

I swallowed. "Good reason."

"Percy, I believe that you are the eldest among the three," Chiron said. "And you were claimed first. Do you agree to to lead this quest?"

I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. Easy for him, we were the ones who ranked high on the gods' hit list. Thalia put a hand on my shoulder. "Better you than me," she said.

"Oh, okay. It's better than being turned into a dolphin," I muttered.

Chiron nodded, though he didn't look as pleased as I wanted him to. "It's time you consulted the Oracle. Go upstairs, to the attic. Assuming that you're still sane once you come back down, we will talk more."

Four flights up, the stairs ended under an eerie green trapdoor. I pulled the cord warily, and the door swung down. As if by magic, a wooden ladder clattered into place. I almost gagged at the smell coming from above. The warm air smelled like mildew, rotting wood and something else that I remembered from biology class – the smell of snakes.

I nearly gagged, so I had to hold my breath as I climbed. The attic looked like a museum of Greek hero junk. Armor stands were covered in cobwebs, and there were rusty shields piled on tables. A number of leather steamer trunks were plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, C IRCE'S ISLE and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. Huh. There was this long table that was stacked with glass jars that contained pickled things like hairy claws, huge yellow eyes and other parts of monsters. No Minotaur horns. There was a dusty mounted snake's head on the wall – if snakes had horns and a full set of shark's teeth, that is. The plaque read HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, NY, 1969.

Those mementos weren't that gruesome compared to the mummy that sat on a wooden tripod stool by the window. Oh, it's not the wrapped-in-cloth kid of mummy, but a body of a human female shriveled to a husk. Her tie-died sundress, the beaded necklaces and the headband on her long black hair looked worse for wear. Her skin was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were nothing but glassy white slits – like marbles. She'd been dead for a really long time.

I felt something cold crawl on my back as I gazed at her. If that was my reaction then, it was way worse when she sat up on her stool and suddenly opened her mouth. Green mist began pouring from her mouth and coiled on the floor in thick tendrils. They began to hiss like thousands of snakes. Of course, I did the smartest thing I could think of.

I staggered back in terror, hoping I could reach the trapdoor – which promptly slammed shat. Naturally. My throat constricted, so I couldn't scream at all. I heard a voice insdie my head, like a snake slithering inside one ear to coil around my brain. _I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask._

I wanted to say something witty, but I took a deep breath instead. I had to calm my nerves somehow, right? As much as I could see, the mummy wasn't alive. She was simply the gruesome receptacle for something else, a presence swirling around me in green mist. It wasn't evil like my math teacher Mrs. Dodds or even the Minotaur. To be honest, it reminded me more of the Three Fates that were knitting the yarn in the highway fruit stand. It was ancient, powerful, and most definitely not human. I don't think it was particularly interested in killing me, though.

"What is my destiny?" I choked out.

The mist seemed to swirl more thickly, like it was congealing right in front of me and the table with the monster-part jars. Four men appeared around the table, playing cards – Smelly Gabe and his thug buddies.

My fists automatically clenched, and my body shook in anger. I knew that this poker party wasn't real though, just an illusion made out of sickly green mist. Before I could react, Gabe turned toward me, his eyes glowing green. He spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle. _You shall lead five to the west, and face the god who turned._

His buddy on the right began to speak in the same voice. _You shall find those that are stolen, and see them safely returned._

The guy on the left threw in a couple of poker chips. _You shall be betrayed by the one who calls you a friend._

Last was Eddie, our building super. He delivered the worst line of all which chilled me to the core. _And you shall fail what matters most in the end._

The figures dissolved slowly. I was too stunned to say anything and simply watched the mist retreat. It turned into a massive green glowing serpent that slithered back to the mouth of the mummy. "Wait," I finally said. "What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"

The mist snake vanished in the mummy's mouth, which promptly closed – like it wasn't opened in the last hundred years. She reclined back against the wall and was still. The attic plunged into an eerie silence, nothing but a creepy room full of unsettling mementos once more. I also had the feeling that even though I would stand here long enough to also get cobwebs, I won't learn more about the prophecy. My audience with the Oracle was over.

Downstairs, the others were still waiting for me. "Well?" Chiron asked.

I slumped back into my chair at the pinochle taible. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen," I announced.

Grover smiled and sat forward. He began chewing on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "Well, that's great isn't it?"

"What exactly did the Oracle say? This is important." Chiron looked stressed out.

The reptilian voice still lingered in my mind. I looked up. "She – it – said that I lead five to the west and face the god who turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see them safely returned."

"See? I knew it!" Grover smiled hopefully.

Chiron pressed me for more, but my mind began to reel again. I was thinking about which friend would betray me. I didn't have that many, which made my options dire. I glanced at Thalia and Nico, wondering if it was one of them. I recoiled from the idea instantly. Oh, and the last line began to nibble its way inside my thoughts. What kind of Oracle would tell me that I would fail on the quest that it's going to send me on? I will fail to save what matters most. It's not something that I can confess to, right?

"That's about it," I mumbled.

Chiron didn't look convinced. He studied my face intently. "Very well, but know that the Oracles words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much, understand? Sometimes, you will not be able to see the truth until it is right in front of you."

I think that he knew I was holding back information about something bad, and that he was trying to make me feel better. "Okay, uh, so what should we do? Who's this god in the west?"

"Think. If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Well, there must be someone else who wants to take over," Nico said levelly. "Uh, a some gods want to do that, right?"

"Yes, quite," Chiron replied with a nod. "Someone who holds a grudge and has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons agow. He is someone whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath not to sire more children, when both of them broke it – one of them twice."

"H-Hades." Nico said, confirming the evil voice underground from my dreams. "My father. B-but, I'm here too, and my sister is probably still on the run. Doesn't that mean that he broke the oath twice too? And believe me, I had nothing to do with the theft."

"I believe you. I have reasons to believe that your birth hadn't broken the oath for some reason that I cannot disclose yet." Chiron looked grim. "No doubt, he claimed you to further meet his goals, but for now, we must be on our guard. A Fury came after Percy and Thalia and watched them until their identities were confirmed. She tried to kill them, while ignoring you all the time. Furies only obey one lord, Hades, and it seems like you're too important to be harmed."

"Hades hates heroes who aren't his children," Grover protested. "If he finds out that Percy and Thalia are the children of Poseidon and Zeus…"

"The hellhounds," Nico said. "Didn't you discuss them back at Yancy, Chiron?"

A frown furrowed Chiron's forehead. "Yes, I do wonder why one of them attacked you too. But it is true that those creatures can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment by someone within the camp. Your father must have a spy here, suspecting that Percy and Thalia will be used by their fathers to clear their names. He might want to kill these young half-bloods before he can take on the quest."

"Great, we've got two major gods who are out for our blood," Thalia muttered.

Nico looked like he was going to throw up all over Dionysus' beloved pinochle table. Probably not a great parting gift before we start on our quest. "My dad. He will disintegrate me. But where's he living?"

"A quest to…" Grover gulped. "Can't the weapons be somewhere nice this time of year? Somewhere like, I don't know, Maine?"

"Hades sent a skilled minion to steal the weapons. Maybe one of his Furies," Chiron insisted. "He hid them in the Underworld, since he's sure that his brothers would blame each other. I can't completely explain, let alone understand, the motives of the Lord of the Dead, or why he would choose a time like this to start a war, but one thing is certain. The three of you must travel to the underworld, find the weapons and reveal the truth. While Percy and Thalia would make a great peace offering, Nico might be able to negotiate with his father."

Might. That's very reassuring. Fire burned in my stomach – not a fire of fear, but of anticipation. I wanted nothing but revenge. Hades tried to get rid of me twice now: The Fury in school, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. My mother disappeared in a flash of light because of him, and now Thalia and I are framed with our dads for thefts that we had nothing to do with. I wanted to strangle him with my own hands, and I'm pretty sure even Nico would help me out.

Besides… if my mom was in the Underworld… I shook my head, trying to get rid of that crazy thought. I was a kid, and Hades is a god – though one of his kids was now one of my best friends, one who might betray me.

Whoa. Whoa. I just got my prophecy, and I was already starting to suspect my friends? Not cool.

Grover began to tremble and ate pinochle cards like they were just potato chips. He needed to complete a quest with us so that he could get his searcher's license, whatever that meant. How could I ask him to come with us, when the Oracle said that we were destined to fail? I can't get him killed too.

"If we know that it's Hades, why can't we just tell the other gods?" Thalia asked, trying to sound reasonable. "Zeus and Poseidon could just go to the Underworld and lay the smackdown."

Chiron crossed his arms thoughtfully. "Suspecting is different form knowing. Even though they suspect Hades – I believe that some of them do – they couldn't retrieve the weapons themselves. The gods have ancient laws. They cannot cross each other's territories without invitation. But heroes have certain privileges when it comes to that. They can go anywhere and challenge anyone – as long as they're bold and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a heroes actions unless they are blatantly behind it. Why do you think that gods operate through humans?"

"So that's it?" I asked. "We're being used?"

"What I mean, is that being claimed now, on the brink of war, is no accident. It's a risky gamble by your fathers, and an ambitious one, regarding Hades and Nico. Zeus and Poseidon themselves are in desperate situations, though. They need their children."

My dad needs me? A lot of emotions began to roll inside me, kind of like the glass bits in a kaleidoscope. I felt resentful, grateful, happy and angry all at the same time, which was kind of confusing. Poseidon ignored me for twelve – almost thirteen – years, and now he suddenly needed me. I caught Thalia's eye, and she gave me a conflicted look.

"You knew that we were the Big Three's children all along, haven't you?" I murmured to Chiron.

"As I said, I've spoken to the Oracle too. I've had my suspicions, but I had to study the situation."

I supposed that he wasn't telling a lot about his prophecy – like he was hiding a lot of it. I decided that I couldn't worry about it right now. After all, I wasn't telling him everything about my prophecy either. "So," I began. "The prophecy said that I would lead five. I'm assuming that two of those are Nico and Thalia. We're supposed to go to the Underworld to confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check."

"Find the most powerful weapons in the universe and take them from my father?" Nico asked.

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice. In ten days." Thalia looked outraged.

"That's about right."

Grover gulped down the ace of hearts. "M-Maine is a very nice place this time of the year. Did I tell you that already?" he asked weakly.

"Look, man, you don't have to go," I said. "I can't ask that of you. Nobody can. We'll just look for three other demigods instead of two."

Grover shifted his hooves nervously. "Oh, um, no. It's just that satyrs and underground places don't exactly… ummm." He took a deep reath and brushed away the bits of cards and aluminum off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, guys. If you all want me along, and you're serious about it, then I won't let any of you down."

Relief coursed through me. I wanted to sit down and cry, but I guess that won't be a heroic start to being a quest leader. I wanted to go on this quest with the only friends that I've had longer than a few months. "I'm not sure how a satyr could hold out against the forces of the dead, unlike Thalia with her lightning bolts and Nico with his earth churning abilities and probably ghost summoning skills. I knew that I'd feel better if I had all three of them with me.

"All the way, G-man," I said, and the others nodded encouragingly. I turned back to Chiron. "So, um, where do we go? The Oracle just told us to go west."

"That's because the entrance to the Underworld is always in the west, though it moves from age to age just like Olympus. It's in America now." We all gave him a blank look, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh? I thought it would be obvious enough. Underworld's main entrance is located in Los Angeles."

"So, what? Do we get on a plane?" I asked.

"N-no! What are you thinking? Thalia would be fine with it, but have you ever been on a plane in your entire life? I don't think Nico has ever ridden one ever too."

"Um, no." My mom never took me anywhere by plane. She told me that we didn't have the money, and her parents died in a plane crash.

"Yeah, haven't gotten on a plane before," agreed Nico. He fiddled with his aviator jacket. "We always took the subway. As – as far as I could remember. I could barely remember anything that happened before I was eight."

"The three brothers are all bitter rivals. It would be wise not to trust you boys in an airplane, where you would be in Zeus's domain. You won't come down again in one piece."

Lightning crackled and thunder boomed above us. "So," Thalia began, all business-like. "We travel overland?"

Chiron nodded. "Usually, the optimal number of members for a quest would be three, but the Oracle has decreed for you to take five. Thalia, Nico and Grover are three. Another has already volunteered if you will accept her help."

"Oh. Gee. Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a death quest?" I said, feigning surprise.

The air shimmered behind Chiron and Annabeth materialized. She stuffed her Yankees cap into her back pocket. "I've been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain," she said with a grin. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, you will also need me to keep you from messing up."

"So that makes five of us," Thalia said. "Who're you picking for the last spot, oh mighty quest leader?"

I could've picked any other random camper. I'm sure a lot of them were itching to get out and test their strength in the real world. But I couldn't do it. I smiled. "We better drop by cabin eleven," I said. "A certain son of Boreas is tagging along with us."

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**I know that this story only has a handful of followers compared to my main project, but I do hope that you find the time to review whenever you read. I don't bite. :)**

**Shoutout to the reader who reviewed two chapters in a row! Duly noted and thank you!**


	10. We Blow Up A Bus

**Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING.**

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**Chapter 10: We Blow Up A Bus**

While Nico ran off to tell Jools, I headed back to my cabin to pack up. Thalia accompanied me since our cabins were near each other. Lightning flashed overhead and rain poured throughout the valley that was never supposed to experience it ever.

"Not looking good, huh?" she asked.

"Nope, not at all," I muttered. "Do you think our dads are getting ready to pound each other right now?"

"I don't know, Percy. Do you have the urge to smash me right now?"

I paused for a moment, pretending to consider it. Since the four of us became friends in Yancy, Grover, Nico and I had always considered Thalia to kind of be the leader. She was the kind of person who was confident and in charge. Sometimes I resented it, and it always caused a lot of arguments between us – maybe it was in our nature as the kids of Zeus and Poseidon, or maybe not.

Now I was the one who was supposed to be in charge. I have to admit that I'm not the type who could act as the leader – especially for a quest like this. Apparently being the eldest and the first one to get claimed made me responsible for the lives of my friends and the prevention of World War III. Huh.

"I wouldn't dream of it," I finally said.

Thalia sighed in relief. We stopped in front of cabin three. "Well, se you in a while. And thanks."

Packing up didn't take too long. I left the Minotaur horn in my cabin, since I didn't know what good it would do for our quest. I dumped my stuff in my bed. I had a feeling that bringing a lot of luggage would make things difficult. I had a backpack and one sling bag, and enough clothes for a week. Some of these were from that trip to Montauk, while the rest were four days' worth of clothes courtesy of Chiron.

Aside from the clothes I was wearing, I decided to bring two changes of clothes, toiletries and my toothbrush. The camp store loaned me two hundred dollars in mortal money, and forty golden drachmas. These were coins that were as big as Girl Scout cookies, but sadly not edible. They had images of different Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. Apparently, ancient mortals used them in Greece and they were made of silver, but Olympians never used anything less than pure gold. Chiron also assured us that they will be useful in non-mortal transactions, whatever that is.

Five of us were demigods, so we each received one canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag filled with ambrosia squares for emergency. It was god food and would cure us of almost all injuries, but it was still lethal to mortals. Too much of it could make a half-blood feverish, and an overdose would literally burn us up.

I don't want to be roast seafood.

Annabeth brought along her magic Yankees cap, which was a twelfth-birthday present from her mom, and a book on classical architecture which was written in Ancient Greek. I vaguely wondered where exactly I could get comics written that way. She also brought a long, Celestial Bronze knife that was hidden in her shirt sleeve. I wondered if it would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.

As usual, Grover was wearing his fake feet and pants to pass as humans, and also wore a green rasta-style cap. His curly hair flattened when it rained and the tips of his horns could be seen. He also brought a bright orange backpack full of scrap metal and apples for snacktime. He also brought his reed pipes that his daddy goat carved for him. Sadly, he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday." They sounded pretty bad on reed pipes, and Thalia kept telling him to learn Green Day songs or something.

Jools arrived with Nico, armed with their own backpacks. Our icy friend brought his bracelet-slash-sword-slash-bow. Five pouches also hung from his belt. He told us that they could transform into loaded quivers of arrows "just in case."

So that left Thalia, Nico and I without weapons of our own – if Grover could bludgeon monsters with his pipes, that is.

After waving goodbye to the other campers – many who looked jealous, while some seemed to be writing mental obituaries for us – we headed to the strawberry fields, then the ocean for a last look. We dropped by the big house for a few seconds before we trudged up Half-Blood Hill and Clio's pine tree.

Chiron was waiting for us there in his wheelchair, with the surfer dude that I remembered seeing back in the sick room. Grover told us that he was the camp's head of security and had eyes all over his body so that he would never be surprised. He was wearing a chauffeur's uniform that day but I could still see the extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," explained Chiron. "He will drive you as far as the city and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

Luke ran up the hill right then, with a pair of basketball shoes. "Hey!" he called out with a smile. "Glad I caught you guys before you left."

Annabeth and Thalia blushed – Athenas' daughter more so. The two girls stared at each other and smiled dreamily.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke continued. He handed me the sneakers, which looked – and smelled – pretty normal. "I thought, um, maybe you could also use these. Maia!"

A pair of white bird's wings sprouted out of the heels. Startled, I dropped the shoes and they flapped around the ground on the bit before the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Nico nodded. "Those shoes are sweet!"

Luke chuckled. "They were really helpful when I was on my quest. It wasa gift from Dad, but of course I don't use them much these days."

I stared at him. To be honest, I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that someone like Luke came to same goodbye, even if we were probably never to return again. I was kind of afraid that he might resent us for getting so much attention – no matter how negative – the last few days. Here he was, though, giving me a magic gift. I hope I didn't blush as much as Annabeth.

"Hey, man, thanks," I told him.

Luke nodded, and he suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Listen, guys. A lot of hopes are riding on you. Kill some monsters for me, okay?"

We shook hands. He ruffled Nico's hair, gave a high five to Jools, patted Grover's head between the horns, clapped Thalia on the shoulder and… gave Annabeth a goodbye hug. She looked like she might pass out.

"You're hyperventilating," I told her.

"Am not."

Jools snickered. "Hey, did just let him capture the flag?"

"Why do I go anywhere with you guys?" Annabeth asked, throwing her hands up in the air. She stomped down the other side of the hill, to the white SUV that waited by the road. Argus followed her and jingled his car keys absent-mindedly.

"I won't be able to use these," I said, having a sudden bad feeling.

Chiron shooked his head. "No, and neither will Nico. It would not be wise. But Luke meant well."

I looked around, disappointed. I glanced at Thalia, who probably won't like it, then Grover. My mind lit up with a crazy idea. "Hey, G-man, d'you want a magic item?"

He grinned. "Me?" We helped him lace the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was soon ready to take off. "Maia!" he shouted.

Good thing is that he got off the ground okay but he fell over sideways when he lost balance, and his backpack dragged through the grass. His winged shoes bucked up and down irritably.

"Practice! You just need practice!" Chiro called out.

Grover screamed, and went flying sideways down the hill, kind of likea possessed lawn mower. He headed toward the van. Jools ran after him to help.

That left Thalia, Nico and I with Chiron. The centaur looked grim. "I should have trained the three of you better. If I had more time, I could help you learn more about how to survive and make the most out of your powers. Everyone else got more training."

"That's okay," I mumbled. "I just wish…"

I stopped myself before I sounded like a brat. I wished my dad gave me a cool magic item to help me on this death quest, like Luke's flying shoes, Annabeths' invisible cap or maybe even Jools' cuff, though I'd be no use with a bow.

Chiron rubbed his forehead. "What am I thinking? You can't leave without being armed."

He pulled out three pens from his coat pockets and handed one each to us. They all looked like disposable ballpoint ones with black ink and a removable cap. I could probably buy one without spending over thirty cents.

"Gee, thanks." I said.

"What are these supposed to be?" Thalia asked with a frown.

"As I've said before, I have trained heroes for thousands of years," Chiron explained. "Over the millennia, many of them have left.. artifacts behind. These three are among them, but I was told to wait for the right people to receive them. The prophecy is clear to me now."

I remembered the field trip where everything started – when I vaporized Mrs. Dodds with the help of a pen from Chiron that turned into a sword. I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier. In half a second, I was holding a shimmering bronze sword with a leaf-shaped, double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip and a flat hilt that was fastened with studs of gold. The sword felt perfectly balanced on my hand.

"That sword, Percy, has a long and tragic history." Chiron gave me a very serious look. "We need not go into it. What you must know, though, is that it is named Anaklusmos."

"Riptide," I said. I had no idea how easily Ancient Greek came to me.

Thalia uncapped her own pen, and it transformed into a silver blade that was a little longer than mine and had a small image of a golden thunderbolt engraved on it. She frowned. "Why is it silver?"

"Keravnos, or Thunderbolt, is made of Ethereal Silver. Mostly used by the followers of Artemis and Apollo, the Twin Archers, that is the only weapon created from it that is not a bow or an arrow. It is very useful against werewolves. If you press that thunderbolt, it will transform into a spear." Chiron nodded to Nico. "Why don't you take a look at your sword?"

Nico nodded, and uncapped his own pen, which transformed into a long, black, hand-and-a-half sword with a leather-wrapped grip and a silver-studded hilt. He swung it around nervously. "Perfect balance, I think. But it's black. I've never seen a black sword before."

"That's rarer than Ethereal Silver," explained Chiron. "It's called Stygian Iron, and is used mostly by people with ties to the Underworld. A simple nick of the blade could absorb the essence of a monster. That sword is called Nightmare, and was owned by a hero who survived the Underworld but never found a use for this blade."

"Uh, thanks, I guess?" Nico mumbled.

"Use your weapons only for emergencies – and only against monsters. Heroes must not harm mortals unless it is absolutely necessary, but your swords were made in a way that they won't do any harm in any case."

I hefted my sword. "This is a wickedly sharp blade. How can it not harm mortals?"

"Celestial Bronze is forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna and cooled in the River Lethe. It is deadly to monsters and creatures of the Underworld, and could even harm gods. The same goes for Ethereal Silver, which is also forged by Cyclopes, heated by the River Plegethon but is consecrated in temples of Artemis and Apollo. Stygian Iron is cooled in the River Styx and could usually also harm mortals, but Nightmare was forged specifically not to do so. After all, the hero who was supposedd to wield it had no drop of godly blood."

"So what about us?" Thalia asked. "Will we be immune to these kinds of weapons too?"

"No. As demigods, you can be hurt by both celestial and normal weapons. You will be twice as vulnerable."

Thalia frowned. "Good to know."

Nico punched her arm. "Not funny."

Chiron regarded us solemnly. "Now, recap your pens."

When we touched our pen caps to our sword tips, they shar to ballpoint pens again. I tucked mine in my pocket nervously. Everyone knew that I tended to lose pens at school, and Thalia was a close second at times.

"What if we lose them?" Nico asked.

"You can't." Chiro frowned. "They're enchanted, and will always reappear in your pocket. Why don't you try it?" Reluctantly, Nico threw the pen as far as he could down the hill. The black pen disappeared in the grass. "It may take a few moments. Then check your pocket."

Nico did as he was told… and pulled out his pen. "Awesome."

"But what if mortals see us pulling out swords?" I asked.

"The Mist is a powerful thing," Chiron said. Upon noticing our blank looks, he elaborated. "Read the Illiad. It references that. When divine or monstrous elements begin to mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist to obscure human vision – unless that human has ties to them, like the purely mortal heroes. You will see things as they are, now that you are exposed to our world, but humans will interpret things the way that their mind could fit them in their version of reality."

For the first time ever, this quest felt real. I was leaving Half-Blood Hill to go west without adult supervision. We had no backup plans. Cell phones were big no-no's since they can be traced by monsters – kind of like sending up a flare. We only had our swords to fight monsters and reach the Land of the Dead, where we had to face Nico's evil death lord dad.

"Chiron?" I began. "If gods are immortal… was there a time before them?"

"Four ages, as a matter of fact. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, also known wrongly as the Golden Age. Western civilization and the rule of Zeus is known as the Fifth age."

"Do you know what it was like before the gods?" Nico asked for me.

Chiron shook his head. "It was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals, but I am not old enough to remember it. All I know is from what I have been told. Kronos, the Titan Lord, called it the Golden Age. People were innocent and ignorant – but it was all propaganda. You are nothing but appetizers and cheap entertainment for him. When Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind during the early reign of Zeus, humans began to prosper – and the Titan was punished direly for him. But gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."

"Since the gods are, well, gods, the can't die now, right? They'll be alive as long as Western civilization is alive. If we fail… nothing so bad would happen, right? I mean, it won't mess up everything?"

"He's right," Thalia said quietly. "We're kids. We barely know what we're supposed to be doing. We could fail."

Chiron looked sad as he said, "We don't know how long the Age of the West will last, even though the gods are immortal. After all, the Titans are immortal too – and still exist, locked away in different kinds of prisons, tortured and punished and without the full extent of their powers. If the gods suffer the same fate, darkness and chaos will return. All we can do is to follow the destiny that the Fates have given us."

"Right. A destiny. Assuming that we know what it is," I muttered.

"Relax and keep your head clear. You may be about to prevent the biggest war to ever come to human history."

"Relaxed. We're very relaxed," I said, though I could see the tension in Thalia's shoulders and Nico's discomfort.

We walked together, the three of us – just like old times. I looked back and saw Chiron standing under the pine tree that used to be Clio, Daughter of Zeus and Thalia's half-sister. Our mentor was standing in full horse-man form. He held his bow high in salute. That was probably the typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur. Huh.

Nico fumbled with his jacket. "I hope that it's okay with you. That I'm coming along, I mean. After all, who wants to go on a quest with Hades' son?"

"We do." Thalia put an arm around his shoulders. "Look, we're all friends here, okay?"

"She's right," I added. "I wouldn't dream of ruining our team."

By the time we piled up in the SUV, Nico looked considerably happier. I was wedged between Jools and him when Argus began to drive us out of the countryside. Jools pulled out his wallet – a plain black leather one – and brought out a small picture of a boy and a girl. Curious, I stared at it.

The boy was him – a year younger or so – but his hair was dyed a deep blond. He had an arm around an Asian girl who was kind of as tall as him. She was pretty, I guess, with skin vaguely tinted olive, wavy black hair and slanted, chocolate-brown eyes. They were both dressed in hoodies – blue for Jools and red for the girl – and both looked really happy.

"Your girlfriend?" I asked.

Jools shook his head and put the picture and his wallet away. "Nah. She's my best friend." He looked really upset, though.

I wondered if there was more to the story than that, but I didn't want to pry. Instead, I focused on the feeling of being on a highway again with my friends. It felt weird, like my two weeks at camp made the rest of the real world seem like a fantasy. I ended up staring at every McDonald's, billboard, shopping mall and even kids in the back of their parents' cars.

"So far so good," I said. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

Annabeth groaned irritably. "Don't talk that way, Seaweed Brain. It's bad luck."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you."

"Could've fooled me."

She glared at me from her seat and looked away. "Look, we're not supposed to get along at all, okay? Our parents are rival."

"Rivals?"

I was surprised when Nico answered it. "Percy, you really didn't listen to Mr. Brunner – er, Chiron – in Latin class, huh? Athena once caught Poseidon and his girlfriend doing stuff in her temple. And the girlfriend was actually a priestess of Athena. So anway, the goddess got mad and punished the girl."

Annabeth nodded. "That was hugely disrespectful," she said. "Another time, our parents competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad gave them a stupid saltwater spring. My mom created the olive tree, which was obviously much useful, so they named the city after her."

"They must like olives. But if they invented pizza, that I could understand," I said.

"Forget it."

Thalia groaned. "If you guys keep arguing, then I don't think we'll make it to the Underworld in one piece."

We were slowed down by the heavy traffic in Queens, so it was sunset when we reached Manhatan. Rain began to fall, and I shuddered.

Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, which wasn't far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. I saw a soggy flier taped to a nearby mailbox, and it had my picture on it. I ripped it down before the others could notice.

Grover was really nervous now that we were out in the open. When Thalia asked him why, all he could say was, "Five half-bloods will smell a lot."

Argus helped us unload our bags and helped us get our bus tickets. When he drove away, the eye on the back of his neck opened to watch us until he pulled out of the parking lot. I felt a big weight drop in my stomach as I realized that I was pretty close to my old apartment.

"Are you okay, man?" Nico asked.

"Y-yeah," I told him, hating the way my voice shook. "Just thinking. My mom would've been home from the candy store by now, and Smelly Gabe is probably up there in our apartment and playing poker. He probably won't even miss her."

Grover shouldered his backpack nervously and gazed down the street. His eyes darted around, as if looking for monsters. "Percy, do you want to know why your mother married him?"

"Do you read minds or something?" Thalia asked in fascination.

"Emotions," corrected Grover. "Satyrs can actually do that. Percy here was thinking about his mom and stepdad." When I nodded, he continued. "Your mom actually married Gabe for you. I know that you call him 'Smelly' but you have no idea how horrible his aura is. Urgh. I can smell him from him, and even you still have some traces even if you haven't been near him for days."

I wrinkled my nose. "Gee, thanks. Where's the nearest shower?"

Thalia chuckled and pretended to sniff at me. "Eurgh, Jackson, take a bath!" I shoved her away roughly, sending her tumbling on top of Jools.

"Cut it out, guys," Grover said. "Percy, you should be grateful. Gabe smelled so repulsively human and it overpowered your demigod presence. I knew it the moment I set foot in his Camaro. He's been covering your scent for years – like Thalia's mom and her alcohol, and Nico's natural Underworldly scent. Monsters would've found you easily years ago without Gabe. Sally must have loved you a lot to put up with him."

That didn't make things better, but I fought back the sadness. I kept telling myself that I'll see her again, and that she isn't gone for good. I hoped Grover couldn't read my emotions right then. They were so mixed up. Still, I was glad that I had my friends and Annabeth with me, but I felt guilty. I wasn't being honest, and hadn't told them the real reason why I accepted to lead this crazy quest.

I didn't care about retrieving a lightning bolt, or a trident, or even saving the world. I didn't care if my father was in trouble. I resented him for never visiting, never helping my mom, and not even sending one lousy child-support check. I was claimed only because he needed me to do a job. For all I know, he deserved what was happening to him.

I just wanted to save my mom. Hades took her unfairly, and he was going to give her back whether he wanted to or not. I didn't care about being betrayed, or failing to save what mattered most in the end. I was going to save Sally Jackson.

But first, we had to fight off our boredom while waiting for the bus to arrive.

Thalia, Annabeth and Grover decided to play some Hacky Sack with an apple. Annabeth was pretty good. She could bounce the apple off her knee, elbow, shoulder, whatever. Thalia wasn't too bad, but she kept hitting herself in the face. Not dignified for a daughter of the Lord of Olympus, yeah.

When the apple was tossed too close to Grover's mouth, he ate the Hacky Sack in a single mega goat back. We all cracked up.

Jools eyed a couple of girls who were probably in high school. He winked at them, and one giggled. The other gave him a look of disgust and pulled her friend away. Our icy friend sighed. "Old habits die hard."

"What, trying hard to be a lady killer?" I asked.

"Percy!" Nico chided.

Jools shrugged. "Back at school, I used to do it a lot to annoy Romy." He patted his hoodie pocket, where he kept his wallet. "Romy was my best friend. Her family moved to San Fransisco a couple of months before I ran away."

"Mortal?"

"Apparently." Jools shrugged. "I never heard from her again."

The bus finally came. We stood in line to board, and Grover kept looking around. He sniffed the hair as if he could smell his favorite school cafeteria food – enchiladas. He didn't look eager though. As a matter of fact, he looked downright terrified.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's nothing," he replied. He sounded really tense, and it felt like it wasn't just nothing.

Jools still looked pretty relaxed though the rest of us began to feel more uncomfortable. "Getting the quest jitters?" he asked. I wish I could be as calm as him – or maybe not. Maybe being laid back might get us killed.

"I don't think he's just nervous," Annabeth said. Her stormy eyes darted around.

We found seats near the back of the bus. Because of Grover, we were too nervous to even stow our backpacks. Annabeth was slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh. I fidgeted nervously beside her. In front of us, Nico and Jools were talking in low voices. Behind us, Grover still kept looking around nervously. Thalia kept her eyes locked on her feet, as if deep in thought.

When the last passengers got on, Annabeth pinched me on the knee. "Percy," she hissed.

An old lady boarded the bus, dressed in a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a lumply orange knit hat shadowing her face. Her purse was big and made of paisley – which was probably outdated before dinosaurs went extinct. She looked up, and her black eyes glittered.

"Mrs. Dodds," I mumbled. She looked older and more whithered, but she still had her evil face. I slouched on my seat, doing my best to stay unnoticed.

Two more old ladies followed her – one wearing a green hat and the other in purple. Otherwise, they looked and dressed exactly like Mrs. Dodds. Triplet demon grandmothers were out to get us. They sat in the front row, right behind the driver, and the two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway. It was a casual but clear message that nobody leaves.

I glanced at my friends. Nico fell quiet and looked absolutely terrified, so I guess he saw them too. Jools looked perturbed too, which was new. Grover was definitely shaking, and thankfully, Thalia seemed more alert.

The bus pulled out of the station and plunged through the slick streets of Manhattan. "Didn't stay dead long, huh?" I muttered. I hoped that my voice didn't quiver. "You said that they could be dispelled for an entire lifetime."

Annabeth was annoyed. "I told you that it only happens if you're lucky, and you're obviously not."

"All three of them," Grover whimpered behind us. "Di immortales!"

"It's okay. It's okay." Annabeth frowned, obviously thinking hard. "Just the three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem, we'll just slip out the windows."

Thalia fumbled with one. "They don't open," she grunted.

"No back exits?" Jools asked, peering at us.

There wasn't one. It wouldn't have helped us, anyway. By that time, the bus was heading straight for the Lincoln Tunnel.

"There are witnesses," Nico said. "Will they still attack?"

Annabeth nodded. "Mortals don't have good eyes and a clear sight. Their minds process only the things that can be seen through the Mist."

"So they won't see triplet demon grandmothers killing us?"

"It's hard to say, but we can't count on mortals for help. I wonder if we can exit through the roof?"

When we hit the Lincoln Tunnel, the bus plunged into darkness. Only the running lights down the aisl provided any light. The silence that followed it felt eerie, especially without the constant sound of the rain. Mrs. Dodds got up. As if she rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus in a flat voice: "I need to use the restroom."

"So do I," the second and third sisters said, and the three evil hags started to come down the aisle.

Annabeth pursed her lips and handed me her hat. "You're the quest leader. No matter what, they can't see you. Besides, you're fast. Press the emergency stop button and we can make our exit. Okay?"

"But you guys…"

"Will manage. Nico's scent might be enough to mask us," Annabeth told me. "But you have to stay hidden, as they recognize you the most."

"What about Thalia?"

"On it already." Thalia jammed down Grover's rasta cap, concealing a great deal of her features. It clashed with the rest of her clothes, so she took off her leather jacket.

In front of us, Nico pulled up his jacket hood. Jools put a hand on his cuff, ready to turn it into a sword or a bow. We shouldered our backpacks, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Mrs. Dodds stopped near us, sniffed, then kept going.

I jammed on the Yankees cap, feeling like a coward. I looked down, and my body simply wasn't there anymore. It was disorienting, but I did my best to creep up the aisle. I already made it through ten rows and ducked into an empty seat when the furies went past me. One of them stopped, sniffed, and looked straight at me. Luckily, she didn't see anything, and the three hags kept going.

I made it to the front of the bus, which was almost through the tunnel already. I was about to press the emergency stop button when a hideous wail pierced through the silence. It came from the back row – from my friends.

My heart crawled to my throat. The old ladies simply weren't old ladies anymore. They kept the same faces since I guess they couldn't get uglier, but their bodies turned into leathery brown hag bodies. They had bat wings and gargoyle claws for hands and feet. They now held fiery whips instead of handbags.

My friends were surrounded by the Furies, who lashed their whips and screeched, "Where is it? Where?"

The other passengers began to scream and cower at their seats. They were seeing something dreadful, all right.

"Go away!" Annabeth yelled. "You won't find what you're looking for."

The Furies raised their whips, and my friends drew their weapons – a knife for Annabeth, a tin can for Grover and swords for the others. I acted on my stupid impulse – the way an ADHD poster child of the our would have done.

I spotted the bus driver, who was distracted. He was peering at the rearview mirror, trying to see what was happening. I was still invisible, so I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everyone was thrown to the right, screaming all the way. I hoped that the Furies smashed against the windows. The driver protested and we wrestled for the wheel – until the bus slammed against the tunnel side.

The bus lurched out of the Lincoln Tunnel and plunged into the rainstorm, with people and monsters tossed all around it. Cars were plowed aside like bowling pins, which was not good. The driver managed to find an exit and we shot off the highway, half a dozen traffic lights and somehow a New Jersey rural road.

There was so much nothing across the riverf rm New York. I could spot woods to the left and the Hudson River to the right, where our driver was veering to. I had another fantastic idea and hit the emergency brake.

I cringed as the bus wailed and spun a full circle on the wet asphalt before hitting the trees. The emergency lights blared to life and the door opened. The driver ran out quickly, followed by a stampede of angry, yelling passengers. I let them pass by stepping into the driver's seat.

Meanwhile, the Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whip at my friends. Annabeth yelled at them in Ancient Greek, warning them to back off, as Thalia brandished her sword which crackled with blue electricity. Nico and Jools stood protectively with Grover right in between them. I was free to go, but I couldn't leave them behind. I took off the invisible cap and yelled, "Hey!"

The Furies turned, and I cringed. Their yellow fangs looked horribly lethal, and the exit suddenly seemed like a better idea. Mrs. Dodds led them, stalking up the aisle like she always did in class when she was about to deliver my F- math test. She flicked her whip and red flames danced angrily along the barbed leather. Like giant lizard hags, her sisters crawled toward me on the seats.

"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds hissed, using an accent that was most likely farther south than Georgia, "You and your friends have offended the gods. You shall die first as payment for our… previous encounter."

"I liked you better as a math teacher, lady," I said, not flinching when she growled.

The others moved up behind the Furies, trying to look for an opening. Even outnumbered, the hag ladies were probably more powerful than us. I uncapped Riptide and brandished its shimmering double edges. That made them hesitate. After all, Mrs. Dodds, felt Riptide's blade before and wouldn't be pleased to see it again.

"Submit now," the purple-hatted one said. "I assure you that you will not suffer eternal torment."

"Nice try, but no thanks," I replied.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled as Annabeth cried, "Look out!"

Mrs. Dodds Lashed her whip around my sword hand, and her sisters lunched at me from both sides. Searing hot pain wrapped around my hand, but I kept my grip on Riptide. I struck the Fury to the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward before Jools and Thalia skewered her with their swords. Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold, yanking her backward. I raised my blade and decapitated the Fury on the right as Nico skewered her on the stomach. Grover ripped the flaming whip out of Mrs. Dodd's hands.

"Ow! Hot!" he kept repeating.

"Zeus will destroy you," Mrs. Dodds hissed. "Hades will have your souls – even you, di Angelo. You have disappointed him."

"Braccas meas vescimini," I yelled at her. I don't know where my Latin came from, but I'm sure it meant "Eat my pants." Whatever. Thunder shook the bus as Annabeth managed to slit her throat and sent her spilling like a pinata.

Thunder boomed again, and the hair rose on the back of my neck. "Get out! We have to get out," Annabeth yelled.

Together, the six of us sprinted out, where the other passengers wandered daedly around the area. Others argued with the drivers, while some ran around in circles while yelling. There was a tourist in a Hawaiian shirt who snapped up a picture of us with his camera before we could hide transform our weapons.

Lightning struck, and the bus windows exploded. The passengers ran for cover. There was a new, giant crater on the roof. If that overkill wasn't enough to keep the Furies from reforming quickly, then I don't know what will.

"We have to go," Annabeth said. "They might have reinforcements waiting, and these mortals might realize that something's wrong."

Jools rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a flashlight. He motioned to the woods. "Got any better ideas?"

"No."

We headed into the woods while the rain was still a heavy sheet above us. The bus was in flames behind us, and ahead? Only trees and darkness.

* * *

**Sorry, I got sidetracked by "Firsts", which is a splendid, splendid fanfic about Calypso and Leo. If you haven't read it yet, then I suggest that you do. You won't be disappointed!**

**Anyway, I really, REALLY appreciate reviews and they're for free, so don't hesitate to drop one after reading this chapter!**


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